Everlasting Time Guardian
by The Final Conduit
Summary: It should've been expected that his job wasn't finished yet. With Towa still around, the time patroller could only guess this would happen. He'd definitely more than Trunks' help if he hoped to win this time... Continuation of Xenoverse. Altered old, new, and TFS sagas inside.
1. A New Battle

The small plaza of Toki Toki city was always a welcome sight to him.

His name always being under dispute to all who knew him, people had often opted to either call him either Time Patroller or Future Warrior, it more typically being the latter.

Him lying on his back, the man with flaming red hair opened his eyes, hands folded on the back of his head as he looked up at the sky.

The Future Warrior had only just finished his recent adventure of fixing the errors in the timeline caused by Towa, Mira, and Demigra, and now that he'd experienced firsthand what such entities getting involved could cause, he'd gladly accepted the job.

Being a saiyan, such an offer excited him.

Oh how he wished first impressions weren't so liable to mislead people.

While he'd definitely gained a large deal of strength in such a short span of time, the mere thought of getting a good fight seemed out of the question for him.

He could even vividly remember not so long ago the moment where his partner, Trunks, had told him to simply "have a little spar" with new recruits for the Time Patrol squad.

Since the meaning of the word "spar" had rubbed him the wrong way after his first meeting with Trunks, as the young man had attacked him to the point that he needed to go all out against him to keep up, he did the exact same thing to all the recruits.

And this, of course, sent all four of them flying through the skies.

He found himself chuckling lightly at the memory, sitting up from his place of rest.

Picking up his green Scouter from his left side and putting it on, the man pushed the button on the side of it, feeling the familiar hum of its power starting up come into his ear, the high pitched sounds that it emitted letting him know that it was searching for the strongest being in the plaza, him having no doubts that it was Trunks.

Standing up completely, the Future Warrior followed where the Scouter led him, jumping from the top of the giant hour glass structure and flying down.

He found the familiar sight of Trunks in the official "office" of their boss, the Supreme Kai of Time, him cleaning up several broken pieces of technology inside of the room.

"Hey Trunks," the purple haired male looked over at him the sound of his name, "Do you or the Supreme Kai of Time have anything for me to do today?"

"Not right now Time Patroller," Trunks responded, the Future Warrior half-expecting that answer, Trunks himself smiling reassuringly, "But we'll tell you if we need any help."

"Alright." The Future Warrior replied, him about to leave when he heard the sound of heels clicking on the ground.

Turning around, he found the familiar small frame of the Supreme Kai of Time walking up the stairs of the Time Nest.

He smiled at the pinkishly skinned girl, "Hey there Supreme Kai of Time, how are y - ?" She stuffed a scroll into his hand before he could finish.

"Sorry, but I need you to fix something else in the timeline." She said quickly, "I'm sure you can handle it, right?"

Seeing her smile, he nodded, "I'm guessing so."

He opened the scroll up, and saw the first face that was revealed to him.

After realizing who it was, he looked back up at her, "I should be able to defeat the androids again. It's not like they're the worst thing I've fought."

He started to roll up the scroll of eternity, but just before he could concentrate, the Supreme Kai of Time held her hand up at him, "Wait, defeating them isn't your objective. Remember that."

"Alright. But what do I do then?" He asked her.

"I'll explain it when you get there." She responded.

He nodded, concentrating with closed eyes as he disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

As he reappeared in what appeared to be a somewhat destroyed version of a city, he quickly spotted the power level of someone near a building labeled the Capsule Corp.

"Currently Gohan is trying to fly to Namek," The Future Warrior looked up at the sound of the Supreme Kai of Time's voice, "However, as the Androids have killed everyone who can stand up to them besides them, you need to make sure that Gohan doesn't die before he can leave."

He understood now...

That explained why the Scroll of Eternity had shown an image of a young Gohan being killed by the hands of Android 17 and 18 in his attempts to protect a blue haired woman clutching an infant close to her and an old man wearing a lab coat.

"In the original version of the timeline, the Androids hadn't arrived at the launch site until right after Gohan left. However, this time..."

"I understand." He said, concentrating and flying towards the Capsule Corp. building, a blue aura surrounding him, it stopping the wind from hurting his eyes.

As he flew around the building, the Future Warrior stopped at the sight of a spherical shaped pod painted white with several black markings on it, five figures standing around there next to it.

He flew at full speed towards them all, landing next to the shortest of the whole group, who sported a head of almost wildly unkempt hair, the purple gi making it obvious who it was.

Gohan looked over at him when he'd landed, asking him, "Who are you?"

"I'm on your side. I'll hold them off, you get to the ship." The Future Warrior said as he entered a fighting stance, him facing the pair who were standing a short distance away from them, the Androids alit by the purple aura that was so uncharacteristic of them.

"No, I can't just leave you here. They're just too powerful." Gohan said, standing his ground, the Future Warrior scowling at this.

"Alright, let's see what we can do about driving them away."

The Future Warrior charged up his energy, body lighting up as he did this, doing so as quickly as possible, waves of ki coming off of his body like a type of blue steam.

"You ready?" He asked the boy next to him.

"R-Right." Gohan responded, the seven year old momentarily too startled by the Future Warrior's power output to be completely focused on the Androids in front of him.

"Alright, let's go." He said, him flying straight at the Androids.

#17, hand caressing the side of the space ship as he examined it closely, had looked at the sight of the Future Warrior charging up his energy, and seeing the man speeding towards him after kicking harshly off the ground, quickly blocked the punch he sent #17's way with his left wrist.

The force behind the blow startled him further, it so great that a small crater formed on the ground, the dirt seeming to jump up in the air and rain back onto the ground, #17 pushed backwards by the punch.

The red haired man threw another punch after twisting his free hand, now a fist, back, and #17 scowled, bracing himself for the impact, only for #18 to intervene, the Future Warrior getting a drop kick to the face that made him stumble backwards, #18 falling flat on her two feet as she landed from being in midair.

"Thanks 18." #17 said to his sister, him holding his wrist, left hand clenching and unclenching itself as he felt the pain of one blow set itself in..

"No problem." #18 responded simply, arms crossed.

The Future Warrior recovered quickly from the blow, rubbing the side of his face that got hit by the bottom of #18's two feet.

"It looks like there's someone else who wants to get in our way." #18 commented shortly, before ducking underneath a punch that a flying Gohan sent her way, #17 seeing that he tried to do the same thing as the Future Warrior, the male Android punching Gohan shortly in the stomach, the momentum behind the punch making him unable to dodge or block in time, Gohan having the wind knocked out of his stomach as he was thrown back as well.

"At least now we're even." #17 said, him back to holding his left wrist and twisting it around.

Then, almost simultaneously, the duo moved, flying over the form of Gohan and immediately attacking the Future Warrior, the red haired man quickly bringing up his hands to block the onslaught of attacks that the two would unleash onto him, his hands becoming like blurs as he blocked and dodged every attack they sent his way.

Despite the two managing to force him to keep making constant steps backwards, the Future Warrior was having a harder time not trying to retaliate, as he realized that he was a bit scared of going overboard and accidentally messing up the timeline.

But as the attacks grew more and more rapid, he found that he momentarily didn't let this thought control his actions completely, acting entirely on an instinct that controlled him like a reflex.

After seeing the punch that #18 threw at him, he slid to his left, her right, putting him on the same side as #17, and he immediately wrapped his hands tightly around her outstretched right forearm, grunting, spinning on the ground with his feet still planted firmly on it, doing a full spin and trying to throw the girl, who at this point was spinning with his movements, was about to be thrown into her brother, only for the boy to dodge it by sliding underneath the swing the red haired man made out of #18, said girl being thrown through the air with a much unexpected bit of wasted momentum, the Future Warrior having already let go of her.

As he realized what had happened, the Future Warrior whipped his head to face #17, only to have the black haired android force his fist to collide harshly against his cheek, making him stumble back a step, scowling all the while, grunting slightly as he planted his foot on the ground, turning it to use the inertia behind the blow to his advantage, spinning around on the ground and thrusting his right bent elbow into #17's forehead, his right fist held by his free hand to add power to his attack.

The next second however, he felt himself get blown forward by what felt to be a ki blast of some type, a second small but strong bit of energy causing him to be blown forward, falling face first into the ground and being pushed along the ground like a rag doll.

Scowling into the ground, he got up quickly, half stumbling back up, and charged his energy up beyond his maximum capacity while in his base form, his aura and hair becoming a bright gold.

His transformation complete instantly, the Future Warrior got into his fighting stance.

Behind the Androids, Gohan looked on in surprise.

This man was a Super Saiyan...?

"Time Patroller," Trunks' voice spoke into his ear, "You need to hold off the Androids until Gohan leaves. Then you can just leave the rest to the woman with the infant in her arms."

"Why?" The man responded, eyes still focused on the Androids in front of him, voice low, "I can't sense much energy from her."

For the first time, he could hear hesitance in Trunks' voice.

"... she has other ways of combating them than raw power."

The Future Warrior felt a bit of curiosity about what he meant by those vague words, but stopped himself from asking the question.

"Alright, Gohan!" He yelled, the boy jumping at the sound of his name, "You head onto the ship. I'll hold them both off."

"But... what about you?"

"I can handle them myself. The highest priority is you getting in the ship."

The Androids grew interested in the ship now, turning their attention to behind them, where, in their skirmish, they'd moved several feet away from it.

He took this oppurtunity and rushed them, screaming at them, "Heads up!"

They both looked, and he stopped abruptly in the middle of the air when he was just within striking distance of them, blasting off around them, going in an elliptical path as his body was consumed almost in gold light, before he reached to behind the Androids, stopping abruptly and elbowing them both in the back of their foreheads, throwing them head first into the ground.

Daring to look back at them, the Future Warrior looked back at Gohan, "Go! I can handle this - !"

He felt the wind suddenly get knocked out of him, his eyes widening at the feeling of the immense impact, finding that #17 had punched into his stomach.

He cursed under his breath, but saw the form of #18 attempting a spin kick to his head while in mid-air, and at the last second he ducked under the blow, cupping his left hand in his right and grabbing #17's head, pulling it down to his waist while swinging his knee up, the black haired boy unable to stop himself from yelling a curse in his pain as he felt the pain rack through him when the two forces collided.

As the Future Warrior dodged another attack from #18, Gohan was walking into the white ship, looking to his left as Bulma helped him in, her having given her child to her father.

"Do you still know how to use some of the techniques everyone taught you?" Gohan said slowly, looking up at her while holding his stomach.

Bulma nodded, face serious, "Don't worry. You need to get to Namek ASAP. You'll just be wasting your time if you stay."

Gohan nodded, "You're... you're right..." He walked slowly into the ship, him not looking back as Bulma got out, her quickly scanning the sky for the sun.

Moments later, the ship blasted off into the sky after the opening shut, Bulma having already spotted the setting sun and running to position herself in front of it, the battle between the robotic twins and the saiyan with natural red hair still being as brutal as it was a minute ago.

After instructing her father to try to get out of there, she yelled out at the three battling warriors, screaming out at the top of her lungs, bringing her hands up to be symmetrically apart from her face, fingers stretched as far apart from each other as possible, "HEY!"

When all three quickly looked at her, Bulma concentrated, and in that moment, Trunks yelled at him, "Come back to the Time Nest!"

The Future Warrior did just that, disappearing in a flash of white light, Bulma screaming out again, "Solar Flare!"

Both Androids were instantly blinded, having a sensation similar to having a flash bomb blow up in their face, both yelling out in pained anger and distress, both trying to look for Bulma when they uncovered their damaged eyes, the effects of the Solar Flare still working on them, impairing their sight to the point that everything was ten times brighter than what it should've been, especially considering that it was almost nighttime anyways.

Before they realized it, they'd fallen from their small elevation above the ground, the ground breaking their bearings enough to make them have to slowly crawl to move at all, their balance lost on them to a point that anyone who'd seen them being very liable to be characterized as drunk.

Even when they'd recovered, it wouldn't matter however.

Bulma and the others were already gone.

* * *

When he arrived in the Time Nest again, the Future Warrior breathed, finding that he'd been transported into the Time Nest instead of the small house that he'd entered not too long ago.

"You did well, as expected." The Supreme Kai of Time greeted him, hands on her hips, smile on her lips.

"Yeah. I didn't expect Demigra to try affecting my timeline again though." Trunks said as he stood at the center of the Time Nest, not looking at anything except for the Scroll of Eternity.

The Future Warrior shrugged at these words, him more concerned on other matters.

"I wonder if his powers are getting stronger. The last time I fought the Androids I was much weaker than I am now." He said, voice questioning.

He'd fought against Buu and Beerus and had managed to stay evenly matched against them both, but those two were several leagues ahead of the Androids, and he was having trouble keeping up with them, let alone fighting against them both.

Was Demigra growing stronger...?

"While that's a reasonable assumption, I'm not sure if I'd say that Demigra himself is the cause of it." The one who was quite easily the shortest of the trio said, the girl lifting her hands up to be on level with her shoulders, elbows bent.

"Tokiii!" Came the sound of the bird that resembled an oddly colored owl, everyone looking up at the form of Tokitoki flying down at them, the Supreme Kai of Time rubbing his head when he'd landed on her now outstretched arm.

"Hey Trunks," the red haired warrior walked to the half-blooded saiyan's side, pushing a hand against the table like structure that supported Trunks' hands in their effort to keep him from falling forward, looking to his left at him, "Did you know that blue haired woman from the timeline I was just in?"

Trunks nodded, voice neither hesitant nor excited, "Yeah, that was my mother."

"Really?" The Future Warrior looked curiously at the scroll his partner looked over so heavily, voice reflecting that this fact interested him greatly, but didn't surprise him, "That explains a few things."

"Like what?"

"The reason the baby I saw in the vision had purple hair, why your mother resembled you so much, and how you knew to let me leave things to her." He spoke in a short way, pushing himself off the table and bringing his hands to the back of his head.

"Her being involved explains why the Supreme Kai of Time didn't give me a chance to see what the change in the timeline was until after you'd left." Trunks said, looking back at the pink skinned girl in question, "You thought that I'd try stepping in myself didn't you?"

Her attention mostly on the conversation between the partners, the Kai nodded, "I could tell that you were very protective of your mother from the first couple of hours after we met. I didn't want you to act irrationally."

"That makes sense." Trunks said, looking at the scroll again.

"You look like you have something heavy on your mind." The Future Warrior commented, Trunks giving him a bitter smile in response.

"Do I? Well, don't worry. I'm just thinking is all. Thanks for not showing me until Time Patroller got involved Supreme Kai of Time." Trunks, having walked away with the Scroll of Eternity in hand, said this, speaking the last part while looking at the Supreme Kai of Time.

She smiled kindly at him, "I understand how it feels to watch someone you love get killed Trunks," she said this with a glimmer of sadness in her gaze, "I don't want you to repeat the same mistake as before."

"Yeah, you're right." Trunks responded.

The Future Warrior looked back and forth between his partner and his boss, gaze questioning.

He couldn't help feeling he was a bit in the dark here...

"Supreme Kai of Time?"

"Yes?" She looked at him.

"Could I ask you something?"

"Of course. Ask away." Tokitoki flew off of her arm, and she held her hips again.

"... do you think that I could give you a nickname of some kind?"

The saiyan wanted to ask about what had happened to them - at first, at least - but seeing their expressions like that at the mere mention of the events felt bad enough.

Asking them to retell what had happened would be too horrid a thing for him to do, no matter how curious he became, and he knew this to be fact.

Besides all of that however, he honestly did want to try and give the girl before him a nickname of a sort.

She seemed startled out of her melancholy, "What? Why do you want to do that?"

"It's just that..." The Future Warrior tried to find the right words, "Calling you "Supreme Kai of Time" is kind of a mouthful. Can we call you something shorter? Maybe something with less syllables...?"

"Like...?"

His brain went to work, and he spoke, "Maybe something like "Time Kai" or - "

He didn't even get the second nickname he had in mind out before she cut him off, "No way!"

"Huh? But what's wrong with...?"

"If you just called me "Time Kai" that would undermining my rank among the Kais."

"There are other Kais?"

"Yes. And if you were to just call me something like that, you'd make me sound like I'm at the bottom of the barrel among them all."

"What other Kai even exists? I haven't heard of any others since I got here, so how would that undermine your rank?"

"You have! Goku talked about King Kai when you fought with him on Namek."

"That guy is higher ranked than you though!"

"No he isn't! He is much, much less high ranking than I am!"

"Why do people call him King Kai then?"

"How the heck should I know? He thinks he's some king of comedy."

"Regardless," the Future Warrior said, feeling them getting off topic, "If not Time Kai, what would you like us to call you?"

"Supreme Kai of Time."

"That's too much of a mouthful!"

"Tough! Just think for a second, if you were to suddenly start being called "T.P." instead of "Time Patroller," how would you feel?"

"... to be honest kind of happy. It'd be nice to have a name like that instead of just being called "Time Patroller" all the time." He answered honestly.

She groaned, "Ugh," she brought her hands to her head, "You don't get it at all!"

"In all fairness," Trunks piped in, his right forearm holding his left elbow as he held his chin in thought, "Calling you T.P. would probably feel a lot less dehumanizing."

"Thanks." He smiled back at his partner.

"And with all due respect," Trunks looked at the Supreme Kai of Time, "Saying your full name is kind of a mouthful sometimes."

"I could wipe the floor with both of you without batting an eye," she glared daggers at them both, "So shut up, the both of you."

"I don't get why you're so mad, we're just trying to help - what the?"

The Future Warrior stared, as the Supreme Kai of Time had disappeared from sight.

Then a split second later, the side of his face that didn't wear a scouter collided harshly with the calf of someone else, the force behind the hit throwing him across the room, him just about to slam into the wall when he felt a pair of feet slam into his stomach, the attacker plummeting back to the ground and using his body to cushion the fall, a small crater cracking into the floor.

The Future Warrior laying battered and defeated on the ground, the Supreme Kai of Time whipped her head back to look at Trunks, the man jumping slightly at the sight of her now glowing eyes, an aura covering her that had an odd tinge of color to it.

He set the Scroll of Eternity back onto the table, bringing both hands up in the air in a manner similar to how a person would be expected to respond when a police officer asked them to put their hands up, doing this as a form of surrender.

But the damage had been done.

She disappeared again, and before Trunks knew it, he found her standing in front of him, the blows he felt being faint, but enough for him to feel pain explode all over his body.

He collapsed, holding his stomach, which was one of many countless places that hurt indescribably.

Standing in an angered victory over the two men, the Supreme Kai of Time started to literally kick them out of the Time Nest, them sliding through the floor at first before she reached the entrance, finally delivering a final swing of her leg which sent them both flying through the air, landing with a crunch on the path that led to the Time Nest.

"Just how strong is she?" The Future Warrior asked incredulously, coughing up blood while lifting his head up, it falling back on the ground seconds later.

"In theory every Supreme Kai should be as powerful as a thousand Frieza's at full power put together," Trunks responded, lifting his head off of the ground, him completely face down, "But she's been training for several years by herself, so I have no idea T.P..."

T.P. smiled at his nickname.

At least now his name felt less generic...

* * *

A/N: If you're wondering what moment in history was changed, it was at a point in time that took place right after the death of all the Z Fighters by the Androids, and before the eventual introduction of Trunks as a fighter against the Androids.

It's technically not a part of any canon material, as neither the manga or the anime have really written this out. The biggest hint that I'll give anyone reading this however is that the point in history the time shift took place in is somewhat alluded to in the DBZ movie "Wrath of the Dragon".


	2. The Androids on Namek? Help Gohan!

The day started in Toki-Toki Plaza like any other.

Members of the Time Patrol had appeared on the top of the staircase in flashes of light that seemed to have pieces of clockwork inside them.

As they appeared there, no one found the novelty of the golden statue with an afro and widened mouth to be as comical as when they first saw it, Hercule standing in a victory pose to top it all off.

When the Time Patrollers walked down the staircase however, they found something else that caught their interest.

Sitting at the median of the statue's feet was the Future Warrior, him eating several pieces of fruit as his breakfast.

This was something that no one was quite used to, and the reason why was actually very understandable.

Typically, whenever someone had come to the plaza, Trunks would always be there, his posture somewhat slackened for that moment, him greeting anyone who came by in a friendly way, his voice revealing that he'd just woken up despite himself.

With the Future Warrior there however, it felt a good deal more awkward to greet him.

No one really knew anything about the man, him being something of an introvert from what they could salvage from his behavior, what with the brief conversations he'd often have with people before running off to the Kais knew where, often assumed to be fighting or training people over the course of different hours of the day.

People usually respected him for his power and how quickly he'd become Trunks' right hand man (and thus the third highest ranking official of the Time Patrol, below Trunks and the Supreme Kai of Time), but few could say that they were genuinely close to him.

The same could probably be said for Trunks himself, but since he'd had the excuse of more or less being the actual leader of the Time Patrol squad, with him reaching out to people of so many different races to bring them together for the purpose of helping to keep time stable, providing them with means of occupying their time when they weren't necessarily needed at the moment with things such as tournaments and such, people felt he was more trying to be friendly to everyone when he greeted them in the mornings.

It'd become a small, but appreciated, thing that Trunks had always done for them, many Time Patrollers would think.

Despite the suddenness of this small change however, no one questioned it, at least not verbally.

This was until, needless to say, someone actually did ask.

The asker being a girl who had a hair that had a dark color to her hair that the Future warrior couldn't quite place, he quickly swallowed his food when she asked him, "Excuse me, but where is Trunks?"

"He's... not here today." He responded uncomfortably.

She looked at him in confused curiosity, "Is he on a time patrol by himself?"

She had asked this since Trunks had told many people that he lived in Toki-Toki Plaza with the Supreme Kai of Time and Toki-Toki (and the Future Warrior as of recently).

What other reason would there be for Trunks being gone, she wondered to herself.

He set down the remains of the halfway eaten tangerine in his hand, then picked up a scroll sitting on the opposite side of him to the fruit, it greatly resembling a Scroll of Eternity.

He handed it to her, talking all the while, "He left me in charge of everything while he was gone."

She opened the scroll, half expecting an image of an event in history gone awry, only to find handwritten text.

_'I'm sorry, but due to unforeseen circumstances, I am currently unable to uphold my regular duties. When I'm more capable of the tasks, I'll return as quickly as possible. If you have any questions in my absence that need to be answered, contact T.P. (Future Warrior), or the Supreme Kai of Time. They will certainly do their best to answer any questions you may have._

_\- Trunks'_

"He couldn't have left you in charge of everything. The Supreme Kai of Time is still here, isn't she?" She looked up from the scroll at the Future Warrior.

He seemed to become even more uncomfortable at this question.

"She isn't actually."

"Huh?" So surprised by his response, this was the only thing she could say.

He reached to his left again, picking up a second Scroll of Eternity lookalike, handing it to her.

As she opened it up, she found another message.

_'I'm sorry. Due to circumstances that I've caused, I'm currently going to bring Trunks back. I'll be back in a jiffy._

_\- Supreme Kai of Time'_

"He literally left everything to me."

She looked up at him, "What exactly happened to him?"

"Well... Trunks and I... sort of had a bit of an altercation with the Supreme Kai of Time that went south very quickly..." He spoke, choosing his words carefully.

"What happened?"

"We were trying to give the Supreme Kai of Time a nickname, but she didn't like it all that much. So next thing we know, she beats us both up and literally kicked us away from her."

"Are YOU alright?"

Him being a person of such incredible power, the notion of someone being able to beat both the Future Warrior and Trunks was outlandishly horrifying.

"I'm alright. Just a couple of bruises. Nothing a couple of capsules couldn't fix." He reassured her with a smile.

"What about Trunks?"

He gained a pensive look now.

"He said something about letting the wounds heal by themselves. He left saying something about a relative of his."

"I take it from her letter that the Supreme Kai of Time left for him earlier?"

He shrugged, "Yup."

"Who's going to take care of Toki-Toki?"

"I am. He seemed to like the food I made him, so it should be fine." The Future Warrior assured her, him not adding the part about where he stopped the Supreme Kai of Time from cooking.

Not even the worst of villains deserved to go through that horrid but beautiful looking food.

"Okay." She looked at him with a mixture of worry and curiosity for how this situation would end.

She walked away shortly after the exchange, the Future Warrior having similar exchanges with other time patrollers.

He sat there eating for many more minutes, having similar conversations with the many other Time Patrollers that had similar questions and reactions to the girl that was their predecessor.

He did this until he was suddenly interrupted in his meal by the sound of a bird making its own sound.

Looking at the source of the sound, the Future Warrior smiled as he saw Toki-Toki flying down towards him, lifting his left arm up with his arm bent, the bird landing softly next to him despite the gesture to land on his forearm.

Regardless of this, the Future Warrior kept smiling, rubbing the bird's head, while talking to him, "Hey there Toki-Toki. Are you getting hungry again?"

Not really expecting his response, the Future Warrior stared as the bird removed his head from the comforting rub of his hand, Toki-Toki leaning his head up and clamping the Future Warrior's sleeve end of his jacket, pulling his head back as the bird effectively started to tug at it.

"What's wrong? You want me to see something?" The Future Warrior asked the bird.

"Kiii!" Toki-Toki spread his wings and flapped himself up into the air again., flying back into the plaza that was named after him.

Him believing that response to be a "yes," the Future Warrior pushed himself off of the pedestal for Hercule, leaving his forgotten food and running after him.

As he ran through the plaza after Toki-Toki however, he gradually began to realize that he was taking him to the Time Vault.

Realizing this, the Future Warrior's face grew serious, him running more quickly now after Toki-Toki, before beginning to sprint, the wind slapping his face but him not caring, his body zipping past the dome of a house the Supreme Kai of Time lived in, stopping at the entrance of the Time Vault and running inside.

As he entered, he rushed to the center of the room, him looking around frantically for any disturbance in any timeline, whipping his head hurriedly back and forth to identify the distinctive purple aura that would always cover it when this happened.

Toki-Toki flew to where one scroll was, him leaning his head down and clamping the scroll that the Future Warrior was looking for in his beak, him flying back to the man before dropping it to him, calling out to him with his signature sound, the Future Warrior not looking in time to catch or dodge the Scroll of Eternity as it sailed down towards his head.

It hit his forehead, and Toki-Toki flew down to the table counter in front of the man as he rubbed his forehead from the unexpected pain, him voicing it shortly before speaking.

"You could've just handed it to me instead of throwing it couldn't you?" The Future Warrior asked the bird, Toki-Toki pointing his wing at the Scroll of Eternity as it lay on the floor.

He did this as if to say, "Stay focused."

"Alright, I'll get to it."

He bent himself down and picked up the scroll, bringing it to the table and opening it up, looking at the image it revealed to him.

There was Gohan, him still a child as he looked up with a defeated look at the blonde female and black haired male that had a purple aura over them, the boy on one knee as he breathed heavily.

He pushed himself to get up however, his balance shaky as he stood back up on his feet.

As he stared down at the Androids, Gohan scowled, before clenching his fists, his body releasing his ki as he concentrated, him ready to try attacking the Androids again.

But the Future Warrior found something that confused him about the image revealed to him.

Why were Gohan and the Androids fighting on planet Namek?

Him not having the guidance of Trunks, the Future Warrior found himself at odds with himself.

What was he supposed to do with this change in history?

Help fight the Androids?

Help Gohan to get away?

He cast a sideway glance at Toki-Toki, who's eyes gazed at him expectantly.

"I'll try fighting them. If something gets completely fixed, give me a type of signal to come back."

The owl moved his head up and down in a nodding gesture, and the Future Warrior rolled up the Scroll of Eternity, gripping it in his hand and concentrating as he was soon consumed in white light.

* * *

As he opened his now closed eyes, the Future Warrior found himself a few steps behind Gohan, and he walked forward to the boy's side, letting himself get into his fighting stance.

"Huh?" Gohan looked at him, "Who are you?"

Having gotten used to this question by now, the Future Warrior only glanced at Gohan silently with a smile.

He wouldn't talk to him this time unless necessary, he decided.

Unlike last time, he really didn't know if he were setting the future right or not.

Better not let anything slip by accident.

He didn't even know what Gohan was doing here, he realized.

He concentrated on the Androids in front of him regardless of this.

"Hey look, #18, it looks like someone is trying to fight us."

"Wonder where he came from."

"I'm guessing he brought a ship here too."

"So the ship we took here couldn't have been the only one with coordinates for this place..." #18 sighed, "I wonder if that man and woman are going to show up at one point now."

He concentrated, the Future Warrior charging his ki up to his maximum.

He could only guess that he and Gohan needed to fight them for now...

He kicked hard into the ground, launching himself at his enemies with the intent to attack clear.

As he sped at them, the Androids reacted quickly, #18 raising her hand and facing her open palm in his direction, a light forming there in the form of a golden ball, it bulging more and more in size before exploding out at him, a beam shooting at the Future Warrior.

The red haired man dodged while in mid-air, twirling himself in a 360 degree spin that didn't falter his speed at all.

He stopped however at the sight of #17 flying straight towards him, him due to collide with him in mere seconds.

Thinking quickly, the Future Warrior pulled his hand back, a ball of ki forming in his hand with him throwing it at him a split second after making it.

#17 dodged it, flying to his upper left, then aimed his hand at the Future Warrior, his right hand gripping it as he concentrated his own energy ball, the Future Warrior not having time to dodge it as it launched itself at him, him only able to grit his teeth as he reeled his right arm around his neck, fist clenched, before swinging it back at the ball, his forearm hitting it and flinging it back into the sky.

The force behind the swing had done its job, yet it was like swatting a very heavy ball with one's hand, the overall sting of the attack making him wince heavily, the Future Warrior spinning around in mid-air so that his body faced #17, him still with his side facing the ground.

He aimed mentally, his hands becoming a blur as he moved them to several different positions at a speed too quick for the naked eye, before he pushed his hands abruptly forward, the kinetic energy having been built up in his now burning arms, his index fingers and thumbs touching as his remaining fingers spread themselves symmetrically.

"Burning Atta - !" He was cut off in his words by the feeling of a foot kicking heavily into his neck, his ability to breathe suddenly leaving him.

He began to lose altitude as he lost his concentration, bearings lost, only for a pair of hands to grab his jacket, gaining a tight grip on him, before the owner of the hands that held him in the air, him knowing in the back of his head that it was #18, spun him so quickly that he felt and heard the wind whooshing past him, the Future Warrior becoming weightless as #18 let go of him, his body sailing through the air.

As he looked down at the two Androids, he closed his eyes as he saw #17 aiming at him again, the balls of energy already forming in the black haired male's hands, only for Gohan's voice to fill his ears, the boy screaming out in a way that made the Future Warrior's eyes open.

The boy had launched himself at #17, a blue aura covering his body, him headbutting the android in the chest, #17 grunting out loudly as he held his chest from the stopping of breath that this action had given him.

The Future Warrior took this chance, seeing as both the Androids were distracted, and charged his energy up as quickly as possible, his hair changing to gold.

As he clenched his fists and started to fly at the Androids, Gohan turned quickly to #18, charging his energy into his hand and throwing it straight into her face before she could react in time, the suddenness of the attack enough to add onto the actual impact of the attack, her being blown back a few feet.

Despite him getting a good hit in, Gohan was unable to turn around to try and attack the Androids again, him being put in a horribly tight sleeper hold, him having his turn of not being able to breathe as #17 held him with a strength that didn't correspond to his muscle tone, Gohan gripping the white sleeve that clung harshly to him with both hands in an attempt to pull him off.

The Future Warrior reached them at that second, punching #17 in the face with all his strength, Gohan's lungs filling themselves with lungs as his neck was freed of its unearthly pressure after #17's grip considerably loosened.

Gohan glanced behind him and elbowed #17 as hard into his stomach as possible, wriggling himself free with a desperation he had grown used to at that point.

As Gohan witnessed the mysterious man start attacking #17, he whipped himself around and looked frantically for #18, bringing his middle and index fingers together and bringing them close to his forehead, concentrating his energy into them as electricity poured itself out of his fingers, finding #18 flying straight at the Future Warrior, recognizing him as the stronger of the two.

Seeing this, Gohan grunted, whipping his finger out at her, a drill shaped beam that was several times wider than the width of his fingers shooting out at her.

#18 saw the drill going towards her, and she swerved out of the way, his Special Beam Cannon missing. Realizing this, Gohan forced the flow of energy to stop, hurriedly bringing his hands to stack themselves over each other, his middle fingers lightly scraping against his wrists as a golden energy filled his outermost palm.

"Masenko-HA!" He shouted, this beam hitting #18 on her shoulder, her not recovering quickly enough to dodge it this time.

As the Future Warrior fought fairly evenly with #17, he found himself breathing heavily, counting down mentally in his head.

37, 36, 35...

He was broken from his thoughts as he heard a sound resound in his Scouter.

"TOKIII! TOKIIIII!" Toki-Toki screeched.

Hearing this, the Future Warrior kicked #17 hard in the stomach with a plant of his foot, pushing the boy away as he flew back to gain some distance.

"Are you sure Toki-Toki? Gohan hasn't won yet -" He winced when Toki-Toki repeated this screech, and he felt himself be filled with reluctance as he reached behind himself and grasped the scroll tucked firmly in his pocket.

#17 sped through the air at the man with a heavy scowl on his face, only for him to throw a punch at a flash of light and air that used to be the man himself.

Looking around, he scowled further, then flew straight at the boy who had headbutted him, Gohan only able to block against #18's many attacks.

This feat was something that he could just barely do however, and as #17 joined into the fray, Gohan suddenly had a very hard time with even staying in mid-air, the endless barrage of attacks that were laid into him from both sides making him gradually lose sight of what he was trying to do.

First he wanted to dodge, but #17's incoming fist forced him to block, only for him to get kicked in the side by #18's foot. He tried to block another blow by #17, but #18, who had brought up her intertwined fingers in a diagonal direction above his head, her bringing it down at him and forcing him to dodge, only for #17's punch to his chest leaving him unable to breathe again.

Left like this, with no way to block, dodge, or, even worse, fight back, Gohan didn't even realize that it had stopped at one point, even as the weightlessness of his plummeting body sank into him in a sensation that was like being held up in the air by someone else, sinking so deeply inside him that he would feel it in his bones under different circumstances.

The Androids had stopped their assault on the boy due to a beam of energy nearly hitting them, a young Namekian speeding through the air to catch Gohan, the demi-saiyan knocked out already.

As the Androids took notice of this, more balls of energy flew at them to keep them distracted, Dende carrying Gohan and flying away with all the speed he could muster, the Namekian warrior who had come with him flying off as well.

As #17 and #18 gazed out at the sight of the group fleeing, they shared a glance.

"Do you think we should follow them?"

"We might as well. We want to make a good impression on the locals after all." #18 responded, her brother nodding as the duo flew away, after the two Namekians and the half-Saiyan warrior.

* * *

The Future Warrior saw this, hand holding his ribs, as he looked into the Scroll of Eternity.

He shared a glance with Toki-Toki, "You sure he'll be fine if I just leave them be?"

The owl next to him moved its head up and down, his signature sound seeming pleased to him, "Tokiii..."

"I really wish I could understand you." The red haired man responded, rolling up the Scroll of Eternity with a smile despite this, "Maybe I'll go gather the Dragon Balls when I have the chance and ask to give you a voice. Would you like that?"

Toki-Toki seemed to consider this, and he nodded again.

"I'll take that as a yes." The Future Warrior said with an equally pleased tone, starting to bring the scroll back to its pedestal, only to realize that he wasn't sure if another change in history would start in that era again.

Realizing this, he opened the Scroll of Eternity again, starting to walk out of the Time Vault and watching the images, absent mindedly walking down the steps and watching the image play itself out.

He needed to be sure that he saw it all enough to know if something would go awry again...

* * *

Trunks walked slowly into his house, passing by many dome shaped houses in the Capsule Corporation.

The morning sun made the sky a dull orange-gold as it rose from the western horizon, the chilled air making him thankful for the trench coat he wore.

As he walked, he soon came across the sight of someone jogging in the distance.

Realizing who it was, Trunks immediately started to run after her, the woman undoubtedly on her morning jog as she went.

The first thing that alerted her of something different in the usual morning was the fact that for the first time, someone was running behind her, as if taking hurried steps.

When she turned to the source, she looked at it with a bit of distrust, only for her expression to immediately brighten up.

"Trunks!" She stopped, running back to her son and embracing him snugly in her arms, Trunks hugging Bulma back.

"Hey Mom. How have you been?" The 23 year old male released his mother from his embrace, smiling down at her.

"I've been great. What about you? How's work treated you so far?"

"It's been fine so far. It can get a bit hectic every once in a while, but I still get through it."

"Any girls over there that you're interested in?" Bulma smiled up at Trunks, in a mixture of a knowing and an underlying hopeful look.

"Not really," Trunks shrugged, "The only girl I'm really close to over there is probably the Supreme Kai of Time."

"That short girl with red hair?" Bulma asked.

"Yeah, her."

"Well, since she's your boss, I guess that that's good," Bulma said, turning around, "I bet you're probably hungry. Do you want me to make you breakfast?"

She asked this, half knowing the answer already.

"Are you sure? I don't want to interrupt you if you're on a schedule or anything..."

"Don't worry. I never get to see you anyways. One day shouldn't make too much of a difference."

Trunks smiled in return of her happy glance back at him, "Okay, thanks Mom."

"I warn you though, it won't be as much as usual. You should tell me ahead of time when you're coming home. That way I can prepare something."

"I don't want you to go through all that trouble." Trunks responded, walking behind his mother as she started walking forward.

"No. It won't be trouble for me at all." Bulma responded.

"Okay."

Trunks' smile was an elated one, him happy despite the pain that had set itself in from the day before when he and his partner had been kicked out of the Time Vault.

He was home again...

And even if it was against the rules for him to leave without the Supreme Kai of Time's permission, he was sure it'd be fine if he...

He trailed off in his thoughts as he realized that there was something not quite right going on.

He looked around himself, and just having passed a corner, he stepped back, looking around it to find the small frame of a girl smiling up at him, hands on her hips.

"Hey there Trunks," her tone was so uncharacteristically nice and sweet that it sent chills up Trunks' spine, "You about to go eat with Bulma?" The Supreme Kai of Time asked.


	3. Testing Day! New recruits!

The Future Warrior walked around the city with a somewhat worried expression on his face.

As he looked at the scroll of eternity in his hand, it opened up completely at that moment, he could only spectate as a steadily rising number of horrid things happened to people inside of the scroll, namely Gohan.

There were the Androids attacking half of the villages of the Namekians, a trio of other superhuman beings appearing on Earth in Gohan's absence that included a gray skinned man with a black braid in his hair, a middle aged man with a country accent, and a man of very short stature that wore clothes befitting of a strange mixture of a clown and a pimp, having purple skin, and finally a mysterious pair of giant legs that would leave a path of destruction in its wake before disappearing shortly afterwards on Namek.

He wasn't very sure of how to take these numerous events, especially as they grew more and more outlandish.

For several moments, as he channeled energy through the scroll to let the information he sought out be carried into his brain more frequently, a trick Trunks had taught him after the wormhole incident, the Future Warrior found himself wondering whether it would be a good idea to involve himself to change things for the better.

But, as he wasn't even sure of what would result of such action, he never interfered.

In his time searching through the scroll, the Future Warrior eventually could be found sitting idly behind the golden statue of Hercule Satan, eyes looking a bit tiredly at the enchanted, time-telling parchment.

All his effort to find another change in the timeline went in vain, as far as he could tell.

Though the situation with Gohan seemed to be set on going down a steady path to steadily rising pain and peril, the lack of any sinister type of energy made looking through the scroll seem almost pointless.

The man sighed, closing the royal looking scroll in his hands and closing his eyes, holding the closed scroll in one hand, his left, as his other hand, his right, rubbed the back of his neck furiously, frustration clear on the warrior's face despite his closed eyes.

He honestly wanted to change the timeline, he really did, but without Trunks or the Supreme Kai of Time's guidance on how to deal with the situation, he didn't feel very sure about going about changing the timeline.

This wasn't to say that he had no guidance whatsoever about doing his job.

It was simply the Future Warrior's way of understanding that, though he did indeed have a means of knowing what to do, relying on a bird that could only hoot and say its own name was not a very good way to go about it.

No one ever knew what Toki-Toki was really saying when he was speaking after all.

The only exception to this seemed to be the Supreme Kai of Time, and without her around, the Future Warrior couldn't be sure of what to do in that situation.

Thinking this, the man sighed again.

"Hey, are you okay?" He looked up at the sound of the voice.

"Yeah, don't worry Taino, I'm just fine." He forced a non-teeth showing smile onto his face in response to the Majin that asked the question to him.

Taino was, as could be expected of a member of the Majin race, a person with skin that was malleable as wet clay, yet smoother than even gelatin.

She wore armor fitting of a member of the Planet Trade Organization's soldiers, brown shoulder pads sticking out symmetrically on her uniform. Her skin was as yellow as a banana, the hair she had looking as though it had been molded onto her head in the form of what seemed to be a ponytail, as well as two bangs that covered part of her forehead.

The part of her eyes that would normally be expected to be white were black, with her irises being a light green.

"Would you mind if I asked you something?" Taino asked, and he nodded to her silently, "Did you know about the new patrol candidates coming in?"

The Future Warrior blinked in surprise, but still shook his head, "This is the first I've heard of them."

Taino sighed, shrugging and smiling at the same time, "I figured as much. Do you want me to help you test them?"

For a moment, Taino's answer was silence.

"Are you really sure I should be the one testing them?" The Future Warrior said at last, gaze slightly downcast.

The memory of him trying to help with testing potential Time Patrollers via combat, only to send all four of them flying through the skies, ate away at him once more, as was normal for whenever he remembered the past event.

"Seeing as how you're pretty much the only person who's technically qualified to do it, I don't have much choice in the matter."

The words "technically qualified" stuck in his ears, but as he thought about it, the man realized that he had never been properly promoted. The only reason people generally thought of him as the third highest ranking person in the Time Patrol was simply because he and Trunks were partners.

Besides that, Taino herself was, if anything, higher ranking than he was, if experience equaled authority in this case, as she had been a member of the Time Patrol before he even appeared in Toki-Toki City.

"You have a point." He said slowly, "I would appreciate your help."

"I thought you would," Taino turned herself around, her hands moving reflexively behind her back, her right hand curling its fingers around her left arm's wrist, supporting the arm she held up, her posture identical to a soldier in an at-ease position, her walking through the small tunnel that led into the plaza while keeping her arms this way, "Come on, they aren't very far from here."

The Future Warrior looked at the form of the female Majin as she slowly disappeared from his sight behind a corner, pushing his feet flat against the platform, and he kicked himself off of the pedestal, his feet clapping softly against the ground when he landed, walking behind Taino with the scroll he'd been searching through clutched in his hand.

Following the Majin to the other side of the area they were in, often called the Time Machine Station, the man was surprised to find that a moderately sized group of people were there.

As far as he knew, the only way to enter the city was through the main entrance, the usage of a Scroll of Eternity, or through the power of Shenron.

Since the latter two methods were actually very unlikely, he could only assume that they had appeared through the main entrance.

But at the same time, he never even noticed anyone while he'd been sitting at the entrance itself.

So how did they…?

Looking at Taino, who had been standing before the group of twelve, the Future Warrior walked to her side, deciding to voice his question to her, "Hey, Taino?"

"Yes?" She glanced lightly at him.

"Where did these guys come from?"

Taino glanced slightly up into the sky with a pensive expression, "Well, Trunks assigned me to bring in new recruits he marked for me, so I just used the time machines to get everyone."

"But how?" He pinched an eyebrow in confusion, "How did you get all these guys here without me noticing?"

Taino shrugged her shoulders, hands still in their at-ease position, "How should I know? I guess you weren't paying attention."

He took this fact into consideration, then nodded to himself, "Alright, that'd make sense…"

"Anyways, we should get started on testing everyone." Taino stopped glancing at the Future Warrior, looking at all the candidates in question, a large portion of them glancing around at their surroundings interestedly, with the other ones looking at the soon to be testers curiously.

"Uh… right." The Future Warrior said, hesitance clear in his expression.

Glancing over at him and seeing this, Taino breathed in through her nose, deeply, but slow and steady, before taking a step forward, smiling at the group, "Time Patrol candidates!"

With her yell, the entire group of Time Patrol candidates snapped their eyes onto her instantly.

Seeing this, Taino's smile deepened, her voice a tone happier, "Right now we'll be testing your strength. Any volunteers?"

Silence was her answer.

"Anyone?" Taino's smile remained.

Silence answered her again.

"Anyone at all?" The Future Warrior asked when he took notice of this.

Silence.

"Uh...?" One person, at last, spoke, the pale skinned male having a look of youth that betrayed his age as a relatively young adult, jet black hair coming down in shaggy locks, raising his hand as though he were in a standard classroom, doing so in an extremely awkward fashion.

Both the Time Patrol members smiled at the sight, Taino speaking with a beaming gaze, "Good! A volunteer," the male smiled awkwardly as Taino spoke, "Let's get ground rules down: First rule of the test is that everyone except for your fellow candidates are your superiors," she gestured to herself by removing her left hand from behind her waist and pressing her palm against her chest for emphasis, "This includes me. The second rule is, there are no rules!"

The second rule was obviously a joke, and Taino punched the air with the hand she used to gesture to herself.

Silence was once again her response, and the man she spoke to scratched his right cheek with his index finger as he gave her a quizzical look, "Okay… Sure."

Hearing his affirmation, Taino returned her hands to their at-ease position, her nodding enthusiastically, "Good!" Taino turned to her fellow Time Patroller, "Future Warrior!

He jumped slightly from suddenly being the center of her attention, but he managed to say a somewhat surprised, "Yes?"

"I have some things that I need to do. Make sure these guys were worth the trouble of bringing here. You should be finished by 0500 hours!"

Without waiting for a response, Taino did an about face, walking away with her hands still in their at-ease position.

"What was the point of you saying you'd help me with this if you're just going to leave me with everyone?" the Future Warrior called back to her.

"It's called barking orders. Trunks does it to you all the time, so I'm no different." Taino glanced back at him, walking still to the portal that would lead to the Time Plaza.

"No, you're very different," The Future Warrior scowled at her when she smiled at his displeasure, "Trunks' orders actually make sense!"

"Mine's do too," Taino had started to come close to the portal at this point.

"Hey, at least bring this back to the Time Vault for me!" The Future Warrior yelled at her, and as Taino turned to look back at him, he lifted the scroll he held in his hand up in the air, before gesturing in a way that warned her that he was about to throw it.

When Taino's hands came up, he chucked it through the air at her, her catching it easily, "Where does this one go?"

"Just set it on the center counter in the Vault and I'll take care of the rest!"

Taino nodded, and before he could do anything else, she walked away and faded into the portal, disappearing without a trace.

Sighing, the Future Warrior turned to the group of twelve, who watched the interaction with interest, "I'm sorry. You can call me T.P. if you'd like," he gestured to himself in introduction, "Since you volunteered, would you be alright if we had a little spar to gauge your strength?"

While the smile T.P. had, fueled by pure battle lust, came across his features, there once again came the worry within himself that he wouldn't hold back against the candidates.

Don't go overboard like last time, he mentally told himself.

He just needed to force everyone to show their true power and give the OK for them to join the Time Patrol.

The young man looked a bit taken aback by T.P.'s words, but he nodded, walking forward enough to put a moderate distance between him and the other eleven candidates, all while wearing a smirk similar to T.P.'s, entering a fighting stance.

Feeling himself tensing up at the knowledge of how he was supposed to fight, T.P. studied his opponent, eyes narrowed as his smile dropped.

If he had to guess, the person in front of him was a Saiyan, though T.P. didn't immediately rule out the possibility of him being an Earthling.

T.P. breathed for a short moment, then dashed forward, moving in a way likened to a lunge, his speed too great for any normal person to follow him.

He made sure to stop abruptly in front of his opponent, pausing for a split second as to allow for him to react, before T.P. threw a punch at the boy's face with his right hand.

The punch was easily caught with the left hand of T.P.'s opponent, him grasping it before swinging his bent arm away, T.P.'s fist flung roughly in one direction, leaving him wide open for a counter.

T.P., now a short jump's distance above the ground, watched as the male in front of him disappeared from sight, the red haired Saiyan feeling the movement of the wind around him before he sent a hard elbow around at the fellow Saiyan's face, the young man catching the blow and holding it steady with his right hand.

This one was fast, T.P. noted, the battle scowl he wore not loosening at all as he looked back at the male.

The man with black hair swung T.P. around with a severe amount of force, T.P. coming face to face with him for a split second before both of his forearms were grasped tightly, the boy swinging T.P. into the air with all of his might, T.P. letting his body be thrown up into the air, the feeling of weightlessness covering his body as he stared down at the man, who formed balls of ki into his hands before thrusting his open palms up at him, several blue colored projectiles flying up at him.

T.P. scowled, but he breathed in quickly, then charged his ki up to maximum while in his base form, blue aura surrounding him, giving a small yell as he started to slap the ki balls aside, one after another.

This continued for a moment until finally, T.P. bent his legs slightly, clenching his fists before kicking off through the air, plummeting himself down at his target while dodging the volleys in his quickened fall, spinning several times as he went, the Saiyan that had thrown his volley of ki stopping at the last second, getting into his fighting stance again as he braced himself for T.P. to crash into him, blocking the punch T.P. sent his way with his right forearm, a small crater forming on the ground as the young man was put on the defensive.

Both men grunted, before simultaneously moving, their bodies becoming flashes as they moved.

The collision of the attacks the two threw at each other made the air that surrounded them start to vibrate, the wind blowing everyone watching to and fro as they tried to spectate, this carrying on for a few moments before it suddenly stopped, both of the fighters having stopped a fist from running into each other's faces.

As T.P. held the young man's wrist to keep his fist from hitting his face, he smiled lightly, "You're pretty good at fighting. What's your name?"

The man narrowed his eyes lightly, but spoke regardless, "It's Sky. Call me Sky."

They let go of each other, floating slowly to the ground.

"Well, it's nice to find such a good opponent in a new recruit."

The man, now known as Sky, didn't return T.P.'s smile, and as they both landed on the ground, T.P. turned to everyone else, "Any other volunteers?"

A young girl, a Majin, seemed to look as though she was about to raise her hand, but before she could do this, T.P.'s attention was drawn away by the sound of flapping wings.

Looking to find the source of it, T.P. turned his head up to find Toki-Toki flying down towards him.

"Toki-Toki?" T.P. said in questioning, the owl flying down to the ground in front of him, looking up at him.

T.P. crouched himself down, arms crossed over his knees, "What's wrong? Did something go wrong in a timeline again?"

To communicate a "yes," Toki-Toki nodded his head before spreading his wings, flapping down towards the ground and flying up into the air, him staying aloft for a moment before flapping his wings towards the portal Taino had left through.

Seeing this, T.P. turned his head to the group, "Right now, we'll be going on a time patrol. Everyone ready to see what this job'll entail?"

All T.P. had for a response was a couple of people within the group saying a soft, "Yes."

Despite the obvious problem of the time alteration, he felt somewhat opposed to the lack of a response from everyone.

"Are you ready?" He repeated for clarification.

This time about half of the group said a firm, "Yes," though most still said and did absolutely nothing to show they had acknowledged his words.

He felt inclined to call them out on this – how rude of them, to not even react to what he said! – but as he thought about it, it really didn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

He was about to lead them to the Time Vault, turning in the direction to go to the Time Plaza, only for him to see the owl who'd alerted him speeding down at his face.

Though T.P. tried to bring up his hands to defend his face, it was already too late.

"Ki! Ki! Kiii!" T.P. backed away as the bird scratched at his face with his foot claws, flapping its wings in the one eye that wasn't covered by a green scouter.

"Hey, quit it!" T.P. ducked away from Toki-Toki, but the divine owl persevered, chasing him around the group of Time Patrol candidates, "I know, I know! We're going, so quit doing that…" T.P.'s hands seemed to slowly freeze in place when Toki-Toki plopped down on his head, his long beard strewn over T.P.'s face like a curtain.

T.P. realized what the bird was doing, the heavy weight of the animal on his head astonishing him enough to make him lose the ability to respond.

"Uh… Mr. T.P….?" A girl's voice spoke to him.

Without moving Toki-Toki's beard, which covered his face like a mask, T.P. looked at her, "Yes?"

"Should we go?" She said after a moment of staring at him.

Cocking his head back ever so slightly, T.P. glanced his eyes up at Toki-Toki's abdomen, crossing his arms, "Would it be alright if we go now Toki-Toki?"

The owl hooted his namesake lowly, as though it were still angry, but still flapped itself off of T.P.'s head, revealing that his expression was that of severe annoyance.

He looked down from the bird, and nodded at the group, "Let's go, shall we?"

Without waiting for a response from anyone, he turned around and walked away, and the group that had witnessed the many abnormal events only silently followed behind him.

Upon entering the Time Vault, T.P. walked with a slightly quickened step, the interior of the building he was inside of having lost its novelty long ago.

On the other hand, the people who were being led behind him took in the Time Vault's unique setup with the interest of a person going inside of a museum exhibit.

The room itself radiated with an ancient aura, exuding the feeling of an untainted holiness so strong that it became difficult to breathe for some as they walked inside.

The building had tree branches as its roof, the branches curled into intricately formed knots that allowed for sunlight to pass through the gaps of space they made, thereby illuminating the room.

Before, in the Time Machine Station of the city, what had driven the group as a whole to be silent had been the raw level of outlandish events that had been their orientation to the Time Patrol, but in the present moment, what brought them to silence was the unadulterated awe they felt entering the majestic room.

Seeing the scroll lying on the counter, T.P. could only deduce that Taino had left it there, and he reached the bottom of the staircase, then walked to the counter, grasping the scroll in his hand and turning to the group, eyes narrowed, "We call this the Scroll of Eternity. For every timeline in existence, there's a different scroll, which lists all events of that timeline inside of it," the candidates gave him their undivided attention now, T.P. looking at them all and meeting each of their eyes, "Of course, as the name implies, your jobs as Time Patrollers will be to help monitor the different timelines, and, if you have to, go into the timeline so you can fix any problems you might find with the history."

Toki-Toki came flying at that moment towards him, a scroll with a very dark aura clutched in its curled feet, and unlike before, the bird cried out a warning, before dropping the scroll down to him.

T.P. looked up in time to see the scroll falling down to him, and he was able to catch it in his hand with a low thud being made when it landed in his hand.

He looked pensively at the scroll with the dark aura, held in his right hand, and while continuing to stare at it, T.P. lowered the normal scroll in his left hand onto the counter without looking, letting go of it fully when he felt the scroll pressing against something solid.

With his other hand now free, T.P. finally opened the scroll in his hands, the fabric opening up and revealing the change in the timeline.

Within the timeline, a man with an orange gi and blue underclothes, as well as weighted blue boots, breathed heavily, blood pouring in streams out of his cheek and running down the side of his forehead and nearly into his eye, forcing his right eye to stay closed.

Part of the top of the gi was blown off completely, revealing the blue weighted clothes underneath it.

A man in a dark blue leotard looked down at the other man, him unscathed, scowling down at him, arms crossed, his hands and feet wearing white gloves and shoes respectively, the only thing staining them being the blood that came from the man in the orange gi.

Both men had golden hair, defying gravity and pointing straight up into the air, their eyes a cold teal, blue electricity coursing around their bodies, like lightning on a storm cloud.

The man in the orange gi scowled with bared teeth up at the man with the blue leotard, then whipped his gaze to the left.

There were two figures up in the air, both extremely tall and having pointed ears, one being a Namekian with a purple gi and a red belt, wounds covering his body but him not showing any signs of him feeling the pain it'd normally bring him, his eyes narrowed deeply at the man in the orange gi, the other one having pink skin, wearing blue clothes and a white cape, having black hair on his head and on his face, in the form of a moustache, smirking deeply at the man in contrast to the Namekian's glare.

The man whipped his head to his right, the scowl still present on his face.

To his right floated a young man who had blue electricity coursing around his body, his hair gold and spiky, glaring down at the man in the orange gi as well, wearing a green top that was fastened around his waist with a belt, having a black skin tight suit underneath it, him wearing white gloves and boots like the man in the blue leotard.

Behind the man with an orange gi lay a man with reddish skin, defeated and limp, with another man, who was much shorter than the reddish skinned man, who had a lavender skin tone and a mohawk of wild white locks, him breathing harder than the man in the orange gi, his black eyes narrowed in hatred, but his body in an all fours position, the wounds that littered his body, as well as the blood staining his clothes, revealing the severity of the beating he'd taken.

The short man was looking in the opposite direction of Goku, the man in the orange gi, glaring at the triumphant face of Babidi, a lizard like being with dark yellowish skin, who floated behind a humanoid being who held the characteristics of a Majin male, wearing a purple cape, a black vest with golden linings, white baggy pants, yellow boots, and a black belt that wrapped around him that had the emblem "M" on it.

The four figures that surrounded Goku all had an identical symbol on their foreheads.

Behind Goku, the Supreme Kai grasped at his chest as he wheezed, struggling to breathe but only gagging on the blood in his mouth and getting into a coughing fit.

Feeling the utter hopelessness of the situation, the Supreme Kai looked slowly back at Goku, the pain on all of his features intensifying with each word he spoke, "I'm… sorry Goku. I never would've thought that… it would end like this…"

The Supreme Kai coughed up blood, falling face down on the ground, his hand clutching at his chest more tightly.

"Damn it…" The man said under his breath, "Why did this happen…?"

The next second, his hand stopped grasping at his chest, loosening greatly, before the Supreme Kai too lay limp besides Kibito.

Goku clenched his teeth, feeling them cracking lightly from how hard he ground them together.

He forced himself onto his feet, his balance shaky as he clenched his fists tightly.

Letting out a heavy breath, Goku breathed in once more before releasing a ferocious roar, his ki skyrocketing with each second that passed, his hair length elongating to stretch past his shoulders, then his mid-back, and finally his waist, the teal eyes Goku had gaining a black pupil for each of them.

The six figures that surrounded Goku watched in amazement at this show of power, and Goku glared up at the man with the blue leotard, Vegeta, before dashing up at him, releasing a battle cry while attacking him, Vegeta deepening his scowl as his eyes glowed red.

T.P. stared at the image with widened eyes, hardly believing what he saw, his breath being lost to him in that moment.

So many things had changed in that timeline.

He knew that the only person who had been possessed by the wizard Babidi during the struggle to prevent Majin Buu's unsealing had been Vegeta, at least originally, because of his curiosity concerning Buu himself.

In this timeline however, the Gohan from this timeline and Piccolo had also been possessed by Babidi.

T.P. originally intended to do this alone, in order to try demonstrating for the candidates how to do the job, which was actually a dumb idea in hindsight, as he'd have to rely on Toki-Toki again, but now, looking at this grim cluster of a situation, he quickly reconsidered this idea.

He found the ability to breathe again, and he closed his eyes while breathing slowly out of his mouth and quickly back in through his nose.

T.P. opened his eyes and looked back at all of the candidates, "It looks like it's about time for field testing. By a show of hands, how many of you know how to sense other people's energy?"

A few hands were raised amongst the twelve candidates, and T.P. spoke quickly, "Alright, all of you go out and find the people who have strong power levels and bring them back here. Have them watch the scroll and come to help us if need be. Go as fast as you can."

The ones who had raised their hands immediately turned to leave, them flying up the staircase to save time and energy.

As soon as they left, T.P. turned to the remaining seven people in the room, "All of you, get into a line, side by side."

They visibly hesitated, but they all complied a few seconds later.

Knowing he wanted to fix the timeline as quickly as possible, T.P.'s left hand had already reached up to the side of his face, pushing the button on it to make it turn on.

He saw each of their power levels, and nodding slightly to himself, T.P. pointed three people out, "You," the young man he'd fought earlier, Sky, "You," a very short Majin girl, "And you," a tall Namekian, "All of you will be coming with me on this one. Come here."

The three he'd picked out stepped forward, and when they were all in front of him, he didn't waste any time, looking at the Majin girl, "What's your name?"

"My name is Twil." She answered, a bit timidly.

"Alright," T.P. looked at the Namekian, who was a head taller than he was, now, "And your name?"

"Clarin," he responded with a deep voice.

T.P. nodded, closing the scroll he held in his hands and holding it out to them, "Grab onto it, then imagine that you're in a desert wasteland on the count of three. Ready?" The three people he chose nodded, and he started to count, "One, two… three!"

He closed his eyes and imagined himself there, and he felt weightless, forces conflicting and hitting him from all places, only for his feet to fall against solid ground again.

T.P. opened his eyes, finding the three people he'd brought along with him to be around him and still holding the scroll.

He looked around himself, trying to see where they were exactly.

He soon realized that they were high up on a boulder of some type, and T.P. pulled the scroll away from everyone, reflexively about to press his scouter to search for the battle they'd soon enter, only for a pair of blurs to wiz past him, them deliberately colliding in a clash that blew the four back a bit.

Covering his face slightly, T.P. looked at the blurs, realizing that they were in fact Goku and Vegeta, locked heavily in combat.

Seeing only them however made T.P. mentally raise an eyebrow, looking around for Gohan and Piccolo, only to find them off in the distance.

The thing that surprised him however was the fact that Gohan, and the other pink skinned man, were relentlessly attacking Piccolo, the latter of the attackers using a sword to cut off Piccolo's limbs at a frequent pace, the Namekian growing them back while not giving the slightest sign of wanting to fight back.

Behind him, Clarin's deep voice spoke behind him, "What should do here?"

T.P. looked back at him a moment, then glanced back at the half-blooded Saiyan Gohan and the demon king Dabura attacking Piccolo, before he scowled slightly, "Our objective is to keep Goku alive. So we need to fend off Vegeta. Attack the Saiyan with the blue clothes on and try to help the one in orange!"

With that, T.P. put the scroll he had in his pocket and flew off towards the two Super Saiyans as they did battle, Clarin, Sky and Twil flying after their de-facto leader.

Vegeta had latched onto Goku at this point, spinning in the air quickly before throwing Goku through the air, bending his legs before kicking off to fly at him, Vegeta's fists poised to attacking him before Twil, moving with a speed that shocked her comrades, reached him first, kneeing him in his temple.

The Saiyan Prince fell a good length off of his intended path to attack Goku, whipping his gaze towards his new attacker in the form of a death glare, eyes alit with fury.

"You won't interfere!" He roared, bringing his right hand up with all his fingers straight, a blue ball of energy forming in his hand as he concentrated for a split second, aiming to hit Twil, him about to fire when Goku flew up behind him, kicking him hard in the back of the head with the top side of his right boot, him spinning while moving in mid-air and kicking Vegeta a second time in the back of his neck with the bottom of his left boot.

Unprepared for the attacl, Vegeta started falling forward, T.P. reaching them first and punching Vegeta as hard in the front of his face as possible, striking his left cheek and making him fall from the air.

Taking advantage of the situation, T.P. quickly moved in to fly towards Vegeta, grasping his shoulders and flying downwards in order to quicken their fall.

This was a mistake however.

Vegeta's hands reached up and wrapped themselves tightly around T.P.'s neck with inhuman strength, him squeezing his throat, making T.P. quickly start to gag at this, Vegeta spinning them around in their fall, their plummet becoming three times as fast as Vegeta pushed T.P. down, his hands like a much too tight vise around his neck that kept pulling him down with a force too strong to resist, Vegeta letting go at the very last second and stopping his own fall, T.P. just starting to have air to breathe before he collided heavily with the ground.

T.P. was momentarily unable to move from the impact's blow to his back, his bearings everywhere.

Vegeta spread his hands apart, energy filling them as he glared down at the fallen form of T.P., roaring, "Die!"

He swung his wrists harshly together as he let out the Final Flash, Sky flying to land right in front of T.P. and countering the golden beam with a hasty beam of his own, quickly pouring more and more power into it.

He grunted as he struggled to keep the beam shooting at Vegeta, trying to keep it at bay for his and T.P.'s own safety.

However, it seemed there was no end to the amount of energy within the Final Flash, Sky's knees just starting to buckle from the pressure when Clarin appeared right behind Vegeta, his arms extending themselves grasping the Saiyan's forearms, him forcibly pulling them apart as he took advantage of Vegeta's surprise, the beam of the Final Flash dispersing and leaving Vegeta wide open to take the blast Sky gave, it hitting him in the stomach, the prince screaming out in pain.

In that moment, T.P. regained his lost bearings, and taking notice of Sky, he stood up next to him, concentrating his Kamehameha before firing alongside Sky, Vegeta closing his eyes as the twin beams hit him, only for his eyes to snap open forcibly, him swinging his head back and hitting Clarin in the nose with it, the Namekian's grip loosening around his forearms as Vegeta instantly used his hands and gripped Clarin's forearms, spinning him around so that he used Clarin's body as a shield, which took the full blunt of the blasts, the Namekian screaming out in pain but Vegeta only dislodging himself from him, the Namekian being blown into the sky after being released from Vegeta's grip.

As the two men noticed how their attack on Vegeta failed, they stopped the flow of energy they released, the beams dispersing with Clarin starting to fall limply towards the ground, Goku flying up and catching him.

Twil saw all of this, and she scowled, her right hand gripping her left wrist, concentrating all her energy into it before a ball of red and black energy formed inside of her palm.

She released her wrist and lifted it up into the air, the ball bursting to become several times its original size, growing speedily.

Glaring down at Vegeta, she screamed loudly, then threw the ball of energy with all of her might.

Vegeta noticed it flying towards him a moment too late for him to dodge, and him being left with no other choice, he attacked with a full powered Final Flash, Vegeta able to keep the giant ball of energy at bay for a short time before his energy finally wore off, the ball closing in fast on the Saiyan prince, him colliding with it, T.P. and Sky both seeing it coming their way, both men simultaneously turning into Super Saiyans, Sky flying away, T.P. taking a short moment to get over his surprise at Sky being a Saiyan, then also moved from where they stood in the small crater his body formed, Vegeta crushed between the energy ball and the Earth's surface, the result being a gigantic crater in the Earth's surface forming.

Goku, who was now carrying the now unconscious Namekian candidate on his back, stared with wide eyes at the Spirit Bomb as it dug itself inside the Earth's crust.

To everyone's surprise however, they could hear the sound of the ground rumbling, them looking at the ball and realizing it was coming out of the Earth's surface rather than in.

In seconds, the giant ball of energy was out of the Earth completely, and shooting through it a moment later was a giant arrow of golden and purple light that gave off an ear splitting scream, it shooting through the energy ball and straight towards Twil, the form of Vegeta stopping in front of her, his eyes narrowed in absolute hatred, her own eyes widened at this turn of events, the energy ball dispersing under them.

Seeing Vegeta's deep scowl, his face and body bruised and bloody, Twil could only say one thing before anything happened.

"Oh crap." Vegeta grabbed her face whole with one hand, then threw Twil through the air as though she were a mere doll, her recovering quickly enough to see the Ki Blast Volley being sent her way, bracing herself for the impact.

T.P. saw the Majin's unfortunate situation, and started to fly into the sky to aid Twil, only for both his scouter to pick up an especially powerful power level that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Hoping a consciously vain hope that it was one of his comrades, T.P. looked in the direction of it, only to find that a pink colored cloud had appeared.

"Oh crap…" He muttered to himself, a note of fear being present in his voice now.

He looked back up at Vegeta, scowling deeply.

He had to find a way to snap Vegeta back to his regular psyche somehow…

His scouter picked up a sudden change in the power level coming from the cloud, and daring to look back, T.P. saw that the cloud had changed to become purple in color.

He stopped when out of it came Buu, laughing happily, before he threw a ball of pink energy towards a humanoid shape, it hitting and exploding upon impact.

As soon as this happened, the humanoid being ceased to exist, and looking back at him, T.P. saw that Vegeta lost his golden aura, his hair becoming jet black, him falling from the sky and slamming down on the earth.

Seeing this, T.P. whipped his gaze to look at Gohan, Piccolo and Dabura, seeing that they too stopped their movements, Dabura looking at his blood stained sword while giving a questioning look around himself, while Gohan took quick notice of Piccolo, who started to fall in the same way as Vegeta, only for Gohan to catch him.

"What the...?" T.P. looked all around himself at this, "What's going on?"

"Does it really surprise you that I'd do something like this?" The familiar voice of a woman spoke behind him.

T.P. whipped around at the voice, not believing his eyes.

There sat a woman with blue skin, her white hair reaching down to her lower back, a bent yellow infinity symbol stuck on the back of her head, wearing a red colored skin tight suit with black high heeled boots and lower sleeves, her breasts covered by another piece of revealing cloth that left her stomach open in a "V" shape, her sitting on her staff as it floated horizontally to support her in the air.

There sat Towa, her smirking at T.P.

"Why are _you_ here?" T.P. asked, then asked the second thing that came to mind, "_How _are you here?"

"Shouldn't the answer be obvious?" Towa responded, "I traveled here of course."

"But I killed Mira," T.P. looked at her in an incredulous manner, "You shouldn't be able to time travel without him."

Her smirk dropped at that, Towa looking at T.P. in what could've been offense, "Did you really think I needed Mira to travel through time?"

Though silence was her answer, T.P.'s expression said all she needed to know.

"Why would you ever assume something like that?"

Hearing her question, T.P. vividly remembered Trunks saying that a large quantity of power and a good handling of said power was needed to travel through time without a machine or a Scroll of Eternity.

Since Towa had never shown any signs of having the power to time travel, Trunks and T.P. had only assumed that Towa had used Mira's power to time travel.

Not waiting for a response from T.P. however, Towa pushed herself off of her staff, twirling it around in her right hand, her left hand curled into a fist.

"If that really is what you believed about my abilities, then you were wrong about two things."

"Huh?" T.P. watched as Towa opened her hand, pointing one end of her staff at her open palm, a dark light emitting from the tip, her waving the point in a circular motion as the tip glowed a purple aura, T.P. noticing something in the palm of her hand glow as well.

He was too far away to see what it was, but moments later, the palm of her hand had something growing, it pulsing repeatedly as power was given to it, his scouter picking a rapidly rising power level centered in her palm.

His eyes widened, but then he scowled lightly, bringing his hands forward, wrists pressing against each other, and fired a Final Flash at Towa.

The beam was about to hit its mark, but a force field negated it at the last second, bouncing it away like a mirror would reflect light.

As a result of this, T.P. couldn't stop whatever was growing in Towa's hand, it as wide as his shoulder span now.

It quickly grew arms and legs, a voice yelling out in a slowly rising roar as a head sprouted as well, before it started to sprout a full head of hair, Towa having let it go for a long time now.

T.P. scowled, then slinked into his fighting stance.

"So you're still alive after all." He spoke, the reborn Mira crossing his arms before opening his eyes to look at T.P.

"Did you honestly think I'd die that easily?" Mira questioned, "Regardless, it's fitting that we've met here."

T.P.'s scowl deepened, "Yeah. It'd probably be better if you wearing clothes though."

Mira floated without shame as he was levitating stark naked.

"It doesn't matter," Mira uncrossed his arms, scowling at T.P., "This time I WILL defeat you."

"Come on then, I'm fine with killing you again!"

"Let's see how well that plays out in your favor."

Mira looked as though he were about to fly at him, but Towa stopped him, "Mira, there'll be a better time for this. Let's go for now."

"Hmph." Mira crossed his arms again, his scowl remaining on his face, "We'll settle things later."

Then the duo disappeared.

Despite them being gone, T.P. held his fighting stance a moment, then breathed a heavy sigh.

Though he'd made the threat to kill Mira, T.P. could easily tell from his scouter alone that Mira's power level far surpassed his own.

He'd become a lot stronger compared to before.

There was no way he could beat him.

He was barely able to beat Mira the last time they fought.

He only then noticed that someone was behind him, staring at the back of his head, and he looked to find Sky there, him now in his base form, eyes wide in surprise.

"Who were those guys?" He asked.

T.P. closed his eyes, turning away from him, "Their names are Towa and Mira. People like them are the reason the Time Patrol exists. They're the whole reason we're all stuck in this mess right now…"

He clenched his fists, scowling deeply.

As his fellow Saiyan took this in, T.P. heard him speak, "So… couldn't help noticing you looking down there for a while."

"Screw you Sky."

T.P. flew over to Goku, who had been carrying Clarin, and picked the Namekian up, looking at Goku, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Goku said, "Thanks a lot for your help."

T.P. nodded his acknowledgement of Goku's thanks, then stopped as he heard a voice ring from the scroll, "T.P., get everyone out of there!"

Looking down in a bit of surprise to hear Trunks' voice, T.P. nodded a bit, then looked back at Goku, "This is goodbye. Do your best to save the world."

"Sure."

With Clarin on his back, T.P. flew over towards Twil, him landing with Sky in close proximity.

Looking to double-check if everyone was there, T.P. pulled the scroll out, placing Clarin hand on a part of it, Sky and Twil doing the same.

He counted up to three to warn them, and the four were teleported to the Time Vault immediately.

This was what T.P. thought had happened at least.

When he opened his eyes, he found that he, Sky, and Twil were there, Clarin was nowhere in sight.

He looked around, but found that Clarin was nowhere to be seen, Twil and Sky moving away to give T.P. space.

"Where did the fourth person go?" Trunks asked beside them.

T.P. felt himself gulping slightly, opening the scroll to find that Clarin was still there, unconscious and battered.

"He's still there isn't he?" Trunks had read the answer from T.P.'s expression.

Despite the swordsman being right, T.P. nodded slowly.

Trunks sighed heavily beside him, bringing a hand to his head, "I'll go get him. Come find me later on. We need to talk."

He said this in a relatively calm tone, but the last phrase filled T.P. with dread.

As Trunks ran up the steps of the Time Vault, T.P. looked apologetically into the scroll, "Sorry Clarin…"

Even if the Namekian couldn't hear him, he still wanted to say at least that.

Sure enough, a time machine appeared next to Clarin a moment later in the scroll, the form of Trunks picking him up and pulling him back inside of the time machine, and he closed his eyes with a sigh.

This had gone a bit worse than what he expected.

Usually there'd be no injuries to speak of, and not only that, but he left another patroller behind.

He really sucked as a person who tested new candidates for the Time Patrol….

T.P. opened his eyes back up again, looking back at the scroll.

Two lidless black eyes stared directly back into his, and T.P. instantly froze as the two gazes met.

Then the owner of the eyes spoke, in a low, but eerily cheerful, voice, "Hi."

The word had been said in a slow manner, and though it might've been said with friendly intent, it freaked T.P. out to no end.

"What'cha thinking 'bout there, maggot?"

It was then that T.P. realized that, despite the person being within the parameters of the timeline, thereby meaning that he shouldn't have had any knowledge whatsoever about what would happen within the Time Vault, the man was_ actually staring back at him._

As he thought this however, T.P. shook his head with closed eyes.

There was no possible way for someone to be able to do that.

Acting to prove it to himself despite this thought, T.P. spoke, "I'm just… thinking about life."

There, he told himself, now that he said something, the man wouldn't respond, thereby proving that he wasn't staring back at him.

As he expected, silence was his answer, and he sighed in relief.

Now mentally laughing at himself, he decided to take the joke further, "Things are pretty complicated over here. I made a huge mistake and now I have to pay for it. I wish I could undo it, you know? Try to redo the things I did. But I guess mistakes are a part of life. No one's perfect after all," he smiled towards the eyes, which still stared at him, "I'm glad I could say it out loud though. I actually kind of wish you could hear me though."

"Oh, I hear you." Upon hearing the man reply, T.P. froze over once more.

"You… I… How…?" T.P. stammered, not sure what to say.

"You can't even comprehend it, can you?" The man replied with a mocking tone.

Silence filled the room as T.P. stared at the man, him staring back.

"… WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU?!" T.P. yelled at the top of his lungs, shaking the scroll in his hands.

"I'm at the top of the pecking order."

"Pecking order?!"

"The pecking order. At the bottom is you, then the dirt, then the worms in the dirt, Popo's stool, God, and Popo. Questions maggot?"

"I'm not a maggot! In fact, what the hell's a Popo? And why am I ranked below a freaking stool?!"

Before he could even move, before he could even _think_, a fist popped out through the scroll, punching T.P. dead in the nose and blowing him back into a wall in the Time Vault.

The scroll fell down on the ground, T.P. being lodged in the wall of the Time Vault, before the man fell out of it, falling face down on the floor.

"Wrong answer." Popo said.

Everyone jumped at this sudden change of events, seeing that there was now a defeated Time Patrol member lying face down on the floor, as well as a seemingly possessed book that kept bringing up purple flashes with the sound of someone giving a maniacal laugh.

As Trunks walked inside of the Time Vault moments later, he took in the sight of lights flashing from within the building, as well as the sound of evil laughter, and ran to the scroll, picking it up and looking inside of it, eyes squinted from the constant flashing lights in his face.

When the lights finally stopped flashing, Trunks saw what seemed to be a void.

All he could see was a place he could only guess was Kami's Lookout, only there was swimming pool in the center, a figure that was undeniably Mr. Popo sitting with blue skinned women on either side of him, a short Namekian walking around the Lookout in a bored way.

Though he willed the scroll to show him something else, the Lookout and the Sun were the only things that could be seen, based on the fact that those were the only things the scroll let him be a witness to.

"What… What happened in this timeline?" Trunks asked with widened eyes.

Was everything else… gone?

The next thing he knew, a red-purple light appeared behind him, and looking behind himself, Trunks' jaw dropped when he saw that a wormhole had appeared there, out walking a very short, gray skinned being who looked to be a member of the Majin race.

"Who are you?" Trunks stepped back when he saw the small person, the Majin male looking up with a wide, round smile, his eyes lidless.

"I'm DUMPLIN!" The Majin proclaimed proudly.

* * *

**A/N: Three of the OCs in this chapter are property of other people.**

**Sky is property of the user zZSkyNinjaZz.**

**Twil is property of the user jameis.**

**Dumplin is property of Team Four Star (and it's probably worth noting that Abridged!Popo and Abridged!Dende are in here as well, though Dende only has a minor cameo in this).**

**The Future Warrior/T.P. and Clarin are property of me.**

**Clarin's name comes from me shortening the word "clarinet," if you're wondering. The reason why I made that name was because of the fact that Piccolo's name comes from the piccolo instrument, and since I wanted a Namekian character, I just thought about instruments similar to piccolo and thought of the clarinet. Clarin is the result of this thought process.  
**


	4. Dumplin's Wrath! Wait, who is he?

He squinted his eyes, groaning slightly as he started to wake up.

By the time he completely came to, T.P. had already realized he was lying in the middle of a bed, his eyes revealing to him the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling.

Closing his eyes once more, T.P. held a hand over his nose, groaning lightly.

He could vaguely remember getting punched hard in the face, but everything after that could only come up as a blank in T.P.'s memory.

T.P. opened his eyes again, the hand he held over his nose going slack and falling on the bed, his palm face up as he gazed up at the ceiling wordlessly.

And then he verbally asked the question anyone in his position would think.

"What the hell happened?" He asked no one in particular, him becoming cross-eyed as he tried to look at his own nose for any sign of damage.

Had it all been a dream?

There couldn't possibly be a person capable of communicating with someone looking at them through a Scroll.

It just wasn't something that could happen.

Unless of course that person was a member of the Time Patrol...

As he thought this however, T.P. shook his head.

There was no way, he thought to himself, rationalizing his skepticism with the logical arguments he made against himself.

If there had really been a Time Patroller in that timeline, then surely Trunks would've known about it and, as a matter of course, would've tried to bring them back.

There'd be no way for a Patroller to be left in the timeline they were assigned to fix.

Despite these thoughts, T.P.'s faith in them faltered, greatly due to the part of his brain that reminded him of Clarin, and how the Namekian had been accidentally left behind after T.P. and the other two recruits he'd brought with him attempted to return to the Time Vault.

If Clarin had been left behind, then what was there preventing a Time Patroller from being permanently left there?

His eyebrows furrowed into what could've been percieved as a scowl, but was only a pensive expression.

But even if that man, Popo, had been left by the Time Patrol, there shouldn't have been any way for him to interact with T.P. to the extent that he had, unless he had a Scroll in his hands, with the only available one being in T.P.'s hands when the exchange between them happened.

So how had Popo been able to do such things?

Staring up at the ceiling for a moment more, T.P. brought his left hand up, it reaching just over his face as his fingers curled around to form a slackened fist, the fist resting itself on top of the glass of his scouter.

Staring up at the ceiling in thought, as though it would somehow give him the answer to his question, T.P. eventually sighed in defeat.

Whether the man had been a member of the Time Patrol or otherwise, he obviously wasn't normal.

Telling himself not to overthink it, T.P. slowly pushed himself back up into a sitting position, glancing idly around the room.

The room itself looked very ordinary, in almost every way, except for the wall opposite to T.P. that slanted and curved smoothly to the ground.

This detail alone made it clear to T.P. that he was inside of the Supreme Kai of Time's house.

He glanced around himself, and he quickly deduced that this had to be Trunks' room, with it being well managed and neat.

There weren't many things inside of the room; other than the bed, there seemed to only bare essentials, including and limited to a desk with a standard folding chair, along with a few filing cabinets that each had labels for each cabinet's usage.

Other than this, there was a moderately sized dresser in one corner of the room, a towel hung up to dry, and a laptop computer.

T.P. pulled himself out of the bed, his movements rather sluggish, and planted his feet firmly into the ground before pushing himself up in a standing position.

As soon he started walking towards the door to leave, T.P. felt a bout of nausea assail him.

Even as he came closer and closer to the door, the vertigo didn't lessen at all in that moment of time.

His dizziness came as no surprise to him however.

Based on Trunks' explanation for why this happened to him as he suddenly got up, the blood going through his body had adjusted to him laying down, and since it, needless to say, wasn't adjusted to him standing up, there was a lack of blood going through his brain that would be considered ideal for most people, thus resulting in the dizziness he felt then.

Trying to put up something of a tough front, T.P. put on an expressionless mask, though no one in the room could see him, as he reached out and grasped the doorknob, the coldness of the metal that formed it sending chills through his body.

He was about to turn the door knob when he felt the ground rumbling violently under his feet, T.P. losing his balance as he swayed, his already dizzy state not helping him at all as he fell flat on his butt.

The rumbling was there for a moment, and then it stopped completely, as suddenly as it came.

T.P. looked around the room again in bewilderment, questioning to himself just what the hell had happened before he forced himself to get back up, grasping onto the door knob desperately and running out of the room, him passing the living room and swinging the curtain door out of his way, running out of the house he'd so recently slept in and stopping at the sight that lay in wait for him.

In the middle of the sidewalk type of area that led towards the Time Vault, there was a large crater, several figures, Trunks and Taino included, on the ground, the rags that were once the many people's clothes in tatters with blood coming out of their bodies in small amounts.

The only person standing in the crater was a young, gray skinned Majin, him strutting himself over to Trunks, his clothes adorned by what looked like hearts, the Majin bending himself down and picking up Trunks, who was lying face down, his sword unsheathed and thrown far away from him, by the back of his trench coat, Trunks' head hanging limply.

What happened next surprised T.P. more than many things he could remember; one of the hearts the Majin had on his clothes started to glow brightly, and even from the several yards of distance separating them, T.P. could clearly hear the Majin yelling something loudly, "Time to enter the Fuck Box!"

T.P.'s eyes widened, but then narrowed deeply, fists clenching themselves as he kicked himself hard off of the ground, speeding towards the Majin holding Trunks, the wind blowing heavily into his face but T.P. not caring.

A split second later, T.P. was before the Majin, his left fist already pulled back for the punch, him thrusting it forward with it slamming into the Majin's cheek.

Caught completely off guard, the Majin released Trunks' upon impact, being blown to his right with the speed of a bullet, flying through the lake inside of the Time Nest and slamming hard into the soil on the other end of it with a large sound erupting through the air that sounded like a mixture of a splash and an explosion.

T.P. kneeled down besides Trunks, who grunted as he slammed against the ground again, and flipped him onto his back, grasping his shoulder, "Trunks, what happened? Who is this guy?"

Trunks' face contorted in pain, but he forced his closed eyes to open, looking up at T.P., "Run... Save yourself..."

Saying this, Trunks lost consciousness again, his head lulling itself limply to his left.

"Trunks..." T.P. seemed to lose the ability to breathe, looking around at his fellow Time Patrol members.

Taino lay on her side, the shoulder pad she had blown completely off along with many cuts and bruises to her body.

In front of her was a man with black hair and pale skin, Taino's comrade Pima, who had been so deeply devoted to her that he said he'd give his life to protect Taino, lay with a deeply battered arm, his torso having a giant hole coming through it.

Ukatz, a purple skinned alien and another underling of Taino's, was in no better condition, looking to have tried to shield his comrade, Iaas, a member of Frieza's Clan.

Among the many other Time Patrol members there were in the huge crater, the thing that made it clear in T.P.'s mind just how bad the situation really was however was the sight of another Frieza Clansman, who had a purple skin tone, white braces on his shins and forearms that resembled bones, and what looked like a skull that wrapped itself around his head with four points, two being in the middle and being symmetrical long and another symmetrical but shorter pair of points sticking out of the skull face the Clansman had, the mummy like mouth completing the mask that only revealed his crimson eyes.

As T.P. saw this Frieza Clansman, a man named Percel, laying bloody and utterly defeated in the crater, when he'd single-handedly fought and ended a war between an ultra-powerful version of Piccolo and the Red Ribbon Army's androids, with Babidi throwing himself into the fray no less, he could only stare, not believing his eyes.

Percel's body looked to have suffered the most damage out of anyone else present; Percel's arm was nowhere to be found, both of his legs bent forward in the most unnatural looking way possible, with a healing capsule just out of his reach.

T.P. looked back at the direction he'd hit the Majin in, and he blinked when he saw the water seeming to move two giant tentacle shaped tendrils shooting up out of the water and wrapping themselves around T.P. before he could move away.

He struggled to get out of the tight grip the tendrils had on him, but he quickly lost his bearings when the tendrils swung him up in the air with the movement of a whip, flipping T.P. up through the air.

He immediately felt weightless as gravity took its time to grasp onto the young man, yet out of the corner of his eyes, he saw the gray Majin covered in a purple aura, before blasting himself forward, fist pulled back, him doing an uppercut to the left side of T.P.'s rib-cage, making his body spin harshly in the air, T.P. unable to see him stopping abruptly and flying back at him, punching him in the side of his face, making T.P.'s body spin around in the air with the velocity of a bottle in the game "Spin the Bottle," but with a million times more speed.

Again the Majin stopped, flying under T.P. and flying up towards him with the parts of fists that were made when a person's thumb and index finger were curled pressed into each other, slamming into man's back.

T.P.'s body arched in indescribable pain, and yet he could not scream, although his mouth was as wide open as possible.

He felt extremely heavy punches go into his back a second later, each one's impact sending what felt to be an extremely unnatural energy through his body.

It came once, twice, three times before T.P. felt a hand wrap itself around his waist, him not having to look to know that the Majin had grabbed him, T.P. looking up at the ceiling of the Time Nest before he felt his body being swung down harshly.

He tried to brace himself for an impact that would come from slamming into the ground with his comrades, but instead, he got something he didn't quite expect.

The Majin used his powers of mass warping to make the air that T.P. was supposed to fall through into a table, him slamming the red-haired Saiyan's face through it without restraint, T.P. feeling as though his head was splitting open when he broke through it.

He could barely register the pain before he was swung backwards, T.P. feeling his scalp crashing through another wooden table before he was swung forward again, face forced through a third table before the Majin swung him even further into the air, T.P. opening his eyes, his body covered in pain, vision blurry, several bumps evident on his face, finding the Majin's lidless eyes staring deeply into his own, the smile he gave T.P. making him want to run away as Trunks' had told him.

He saw the Majin push his hands out to either side of his body, golden balls of energy forming there, before he swung his arms forward, his wrists clapping as they slammed into one another.

Before he released the energy built up in his hands, the Majin said two words, "Get Dumped."

With that, he unleashed the Final Flash onto T.P., who was finally able to scream in pain when the attack blew into his stomach, it blowing a hole through his body, his scream stopping just as quickly as it started, with it slamming into the pool below them, the result being a large scale explosion happening under T.P.

As T.P. looked up at the Majin's smiling face, illuminated by the flames of the explosion, T.P. tried to say one word, but was unable to speak it, and could only mouth it.

"Monster..."

As his body fell through the air, T.P.'s vision went black, and he could no longer register any of the things happening around him, his body crashing into the water of the lake with him floating slowly to the bottom of it.

The Majin descended to the ground, his victory over the most powerful members of the Time Patrol Squad evident as he turned, strutting over to the form of Taino, who had forced herself onto her knees, glaring heavily at the monster before her.

"You..." She muttered under her breath, reaching her right arm up to support the left, which bled heavily, wrapping her hand around it.

He strut himself in front of her, smiling down at Taino, who tried to lift her right foot up to get back onto her feet, but slipped on the dirt, making her fall hard against the ground.

She looked back up at him, and Taino tried to move away from him, but didn't even have the strength to lift her legs anymore.

Realizing this, Taino watched as the Majin before her gained a purple light at the end of his pompadour antennae, and closed her eyes.

She said a silent goodbye to her friends, the mental image of each one of them popping up in her mind, her remembering each one of their defeats, from Iaas attacking the Majin, who'd identified himself as Dumplin, when he and the rest of the Taino Force arrived in the Time Nest and saw Percel and Trunks both defeated with all the Time Patrol candidates behind them in a similar position, only for the Clansman to be blown back through the air, Ukatz shielding him, despite Iaas already being knocked out, from a large ball of blue energy that Dumplin had shot towards him, taking him out as well, then Thirith trying to pull his comrades out of harm's way only to be destroyed in one punch (Taino's eyes became watery at that memory), with Taino trying to fight Dumplin herself only to be slapped by his shape shifting hand, with Pima trying to use himself as a shield between her and Dumplin when he tried to go to her a moment after she'd hit the ground.

The result was a beam blowing through Pima's body and Taino's arm getting caught in the blast when she tried to grab him to pull him out of the way.

And now, T.P. had suffered the same fate.

Looking down at the dirt she laid on, Taino's fists clenched themselves.

All her friends were heavily injured and some were most certainly going to die.

And yet she couldn't do anything about it.

Their pain would all be for naught, all brought on by a Majin who probably had no business here.

The realization of this enraged the girl, and her fingers, pressed lightly against the dirt, clenched themselves into fists, a ball of dirt forming in her hand.

The anger she felt turned into energy, and she lifted her arm and punched the ground hard, grunting loudly, forcing herself to get up quickly, ignoring the pain she had.

She had to beat him, she thought to herself, now on her feet, teeth clenched tightly, she couldn't let them lose for nothing!

She whipped herself around, her seeing the tip of Dumplin's antennae glowing brightly and jumping over a purple beam it shot at her at the last second, a large patch of the soil it touched disappearing, the ball of dirt Taino had in her hand disintergrating next second, a ball of ki forming there.

Seeing the Majin looking up at her, Taino threw the ball down at him, it hitting her target, it not being Dumplin, but rather the dirt under Dumplin's feet, him yelling out in surprise when dirt blew up all over him.

She breathed, then pulled her hand back, concentrating her energy into it, the green light that formed there growing with each passing second, her thrusting her hand forward with all of her might, her snarling out one word, "DIE!"

The green ball of light that formed in her hand unleashed itself into Dumplin, who screamed in a rather comical voice, Taino pouring more and more of her energy into the beam, screaming all the while.

But a moment later, the beam's density lessened dramatically, returning to its full size immediately after, only to finally fizz itself out a second later, Taino's energy having run completely out.

Dumplin still stood, mostly unscathed, as Taino fell from her elevation, her falling hard on the ground, her body unable to move now from overexertion.

The sound of someone walking over the grass she lay on came into Taino's ears, and she looked up at Dumplin, who now had the tip of his antennae glowing again.

Lying without any remaining energy left, Taino felt her eyes sting somewhat.

"I'm sorry guys..." She looked down and whispered this to herself, "I couldn't beat him after all..."

The light slowly intensified, and Taino looked up at Dumplin, "Do your worst to me. At least let me have the satisfaction of dying knowing my friends suffered less than I did."

When the purple light had grown so bright that it looked almost white, Taino closed her eyes, breathing a final sigh as she closed her eyes, accepting her fate.

The beam was released onto Taino's body, and she clenched her eyes, her heart hammering faster in her chest than ever before, her feeling the change in her atmosphere almost instantly.

As she realized that the beam had stopped, Taino felt no pain, at least to say no more than she did before the beam had been unleashed onto her.

Things were colder in the afterlife, was the first thing Taino thought.

Knowing she'd have to adjust sooner or later, Taino slowly opened her eyes, finding herself smiling weakly at the thought that she'd get the chance to see her friends again...

... Only to find a pair of lidless eyes staring directly back into hers.

It was adrenaline and reflex, not ki, that allowed Taino to move away from Dumplin in that moment, doing an upside down crab walk in a hurried fashion, her face cringing deeply with each passing second but her still moving.

When she was far enough away from him, she spoke, "HOW ARE YOU HERE?!"

"I've been here the whole time." Dumplin said, strutting over to her.

It was then, in her upside down crab walk position, that Taino realized what had happened.

Looking down at her body, her eyes widened, and then she did the natural thing to do in this situation.

She sat herself on her butt and grasped both of her shoulders, in an attempt to use her bent arms to veil her breasts.

Dumplin had not killed her with his powers. She was still very much alive, she knew that now.

Instead he had simply opted to kill her clothes, resulting in her being stark naked.

Seeing the Majin walking to her, Taino turned around, falling on her stomach, and using her elbows to dig into the ground, Taino wormed her way towards the Supreme Kai of Time's house, Dumplin taking his time as he walked to her.

When the Supreme Kai of Time walked out to see what all the ruckus had been about, only to find a naked girl worming her way with another Majin walking her way, she looked at the destruction of the Time Nest and narrowed her eyes in agitation.

Then she looked at the gray Majin, who's antennae started to glow brightly, and realizing that he was the only potential cause for the mess that had been laid out before her that she could punish at that moment, she lifted her hand, concentrating her power on the area surrounding Dumplin before clenching her fist tightly.

An orb formed around Dumplin, and he walked straight into its wall, looking in surprise for a moment before trying to push into the orb.

Dumplin quickly realized he was stuck in there, and he crossed his arms, concentrating his energy, the Supreme Kai of Time seeing his movements and pushing her other hand forward, putting her full power into the orb and clenching her open hand.

Instantly, Dumplin was lifted into the air, and he screamed with a vibrating voice as the orb gained a second, smaller version of itself, the orb dispersing itself with Dumplin falling down on his face, him now unconscious.

Having heard Dumplin's scream, Taino had looked back, seeing him unconscious, "Is it over now?" She asked loudly.

"He'll be sleeping for a while. I sealed away a lot of his power as punishment for causing this much damage near the Time Vault."

Taino looked at the Supreme Kai of Time, then continued to worm her way to the goddess' side, in her relief caring nothing of dignity and hugging the Supreme Kai of Time's leg, crying, "Oh thank God you came! I thought I was gonna die!"

"Since I technically am God, you're welcome." The Supreme Kai of Time patted the girl on her head, "But Taino?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you naked?"

Realizing her nudity, Taino covered herself up again, rashly explaining what had happened, with Dumplin appearing and attacking everyone, only for her eyes to widen in realization when she spoke about this, "Oh no, Supreme Kai of Time!" Taino tried to stand up while covering her breasts, but her legs failed on her when she was pushing herself up, and she looked up at the woman with the same note of urgency as the seconds prior to that, "You need to heal Pima and T.P., or they'll die!"

"What? What happened to them?"

"Just please go heal them, before it's too late!"

The Supreme Kai of Time looked in surprise at this, but nodded all the same, running over to the defeated members of the Time Patrol, finding Pima and seeing his wound before kneeling over him, closing her eyes and breathing, his wound closing as his internal organs reformed within his body, until eventually a gaping hole in Pima's shirt could be found.

With this accomplished, the Supreme Kai of Time looked over at Taino, "Where's T.P.?" She yelled loudly so she could hear her.

"He's in the middle of the lake!" Taino replied, and the Supreme Kai of Time's eyes widened in surprise, only for her to turn to the lake in question, the surprise on her face turning into horror when she saw that the lake was in fact red with T.P.'s blood.

"Oh no, oh no oh no oh no _oh no_!" She sprinted to the edge of the water, and was immediately repulsed by the strong smell of T.P.'s blood in the lake, yet knowing her comrade was most likely dying underwater, steeled her nerves, breathing in deeply before diving into the lake.

She swam her way down, her eyes slightly open, as she looked desperately for T.P., her searching hands pressing against the bottom of the lake with her fully opening her eyes now that she was sure blood wouldn't get into her eyes, looking and finding T.P.'s limp body releasing a large column of blood into the lake, it spreading through the water quickly.

She swam as quickly as possible to him, closing her eyes yet again as she reached her hand out, her feeling the cape he often wore and pulling him up from it, swimming as hard as possible, reaching the surface and bursting out of the bloody lake, her eyes clenched tightly still as she released the breath she'd held in.

Then, pulling herself to the edge of the lake, the Supreme Kai of Time put her arm on the dirt that surrounded the lake, yelling out loudly, "Taino, come help me get him out of the water!"

Taino had already forced herself to get up to make sure her subordinate had been alright, and with the same amount of difficulty as before, Taino forced herself back onto her feet and did a ragged jog to the Supreme Kai of Time, pushing back her wish to not be seen naked to grasp onto the Supreme Kai of Time's arm, her made several times more heavy by the water that had set itself into her clothes.

Having a good grip on her, Taino pulled the Supreme Kai of Time with all of her remaining might, the Supreme Kai of Time getting back onto the ground and pulling T.P.'s cape, Taino aiding her in this as well, both women managing to get the heavily bleeding Saiyan out of the water, him still underwater from the waist down.

This made no difference to the Supreme Kai of Time, who flipped his cape off of him to see his wound, Taino cringing at the sight of it, the woman seeing many cut off bones in the hole in T.P.'s body.

The Supreme Kai of Time only sighed fitfully at the sight of this, and pushed her hands forward, putting her full power into healing T.P.'s wound, the organs he once had repairing themselves.

Even though healing him to this extent drained her of most of her power, the Supreme Kai of Time took notice of the fact that T.P.'s organs weren't organized in exactly the same way as Pima, but only deduced that it was because he was part Saiyan and something else.

When the wound closed on T.P.'s stomach, the Supreme Kai of Time breathed a quick sigh, rubbing sweat off on her soaking wet sleeve.

"Alright," she looked at Taino, "Does anyone else badly need healing?"

"Only Percel. A few healing capsules should be able to fix everyone else up."

"Good." The Supreme Kai of Time lifted her hand to Taino as soon as she said this, and Taino's body glowed before she was suddenly wearing a purple and red hoodie and black training shorts.

Looking down at her attire, the question Taino wanted to ask could be read on her face.

"It brings out your skin and eye colors more." The Supreme Kai of Time explained, then got up, running back to the crater to find the Clansman named Percel.

* * *

By the time he completely came to, T.P. had already realized he was, again, lying in the middle of a bed, his eyes revealing to him the sight of a ceiling.

He looked around the room, hearing the sound of typing, and looked to find the source of it being Trunks, who sat with a tired look on his face.

"Trunks?" T.P. tried to get up, but he cringed deeply as soon as he tried to, his body feeling immense pain and exhaustion.

He lay himself back down, to his body's commands, and T.P. realized he had a few bandages wrapped around his head.

"Oh, you're finally awake." Trunks turned to T.P. in his swiveling chair, his expression not warm or friendly at all.

"What's wrong?" T.P. asked, seeing the look Trunks gave him.

"Why did you go to the timeline change with the other recruits?" Trunks asked him, and T.P. froze somewhat, then looked down somewhat.

The look of a child trying to give an excuse to their parents when they did something wrong.

"Well... I wanted to fix the change, but from the way it was altered, I knew I couldn't do it alone..."

Looking straight at T.P., Trunks sighed heavily, "While I admit that there were some good things that came from this, there were too many bad things for them to matter that much."

"What do you mean?" T.P. asked in confusion.

"Firstly, there's you making the mistake of bringing new recruits instead of seasoned Time Patrol members." Trunks lifted up one gloved finger to emphasize his point.

"But I couldn't have just gone in there alone, that'd be suicide!" T.P. interjected, "What difference would I make against Vegeta, Piccolo, Gohan and Dabura if I went in there alone? I'm strong, but not that strong!"

"I know." Trunks said, T.P.'s words not moving him at all, his finger still raised, "That's why I said your error was bringing new recruits instead of old ones. Secondly," he raised another finger now, "You went into the timeline without knowing the situation that needed changing."

"But I did know the situation."

"Based on what you and the other recruits were doing, I beg to differ," Trunks said, narrowing his eyes, "In the original timeline, my father and Goku fought against each other without Babidi possessing Piccolo and Gohan. In this timeline, Babidi did possess them."

"I realized that. But I didn't have the recruits fight Piccolo and Gohan because they weren't focused on Goku."

"Under normal circumstances that would be the best thing to do. In this case, that doesn't hold true," Trunks lowered his hand, bringing his left elbow up to the armrest of his chair and resting his head in his palm, "In the timeline you went to, everyone involved in the fight was either trying to start Buu's ressurrection or was trying to prevent it. In order to ressurrect Buu, the people under Babidi's control needed a substantial amount of energy, which he called killi. As Gohan didn't have enough energy to unleash Majin Buu, Babidi possessed Father, and forcing him to fight Goku, all the battle damage taken in the fight ended up adding to the energy Majin Buu would release."

As he heard this, T.P. recalled what Dabura and Gohan had been doing to Piccolo, them attacking him relentlessly and completely ignoring Goku and Vegeta.

Dabura had been cutting off Piccolo's limbs over and over again, with Piccolo simply regrowing them afterwards...

As T.P.'s eyes widened in realization, Trunks continued to speak, him voicing his red-haired partner's thoughts, "In the shifted timeline, Babidi took advantage of Piccolo's regeneration ability, and used the damage he could take to hasten Majin Buu's revival. Again, while your actions might've helped under different circumstances, this was not one of those times. The amount of damage you dealt to Father only ended up adding onto Buu's power, making him even stronger than he originally was going to be."

Trunks gave him a moment to let this sink itself in, T.P. lowering his head, eyes wide, "I... I didn't mean to..."

Trunks watched him for a moment, then closed his eyes, "'Destroyed, not by any evil of this world or scheme of my enemies, but by lack of knowledge.'"

T.P. looked up at him, eyes looking in curiosity, Trunks' own eyes still closed.

"This is a simple yet powerful warning to live by," Trunks spoke, opening his eyes now, "If you want to do well in ordering others in the future, you'll need to know it, especially for this type of duty."

T.P. said nothing now, simply nodding his understanding.

"Thirdly," T.P. inwardly wondered what else he could've possibly done wrong that could warrant this out of Trunks, who lifted three fingers now, "You made a butterfly effect that actually destroyed an entire universe."

Silence reigned in the room now, T.P. looking slowly at Trunks, not believing his ears.

"Wha...?" He said stupidly.

"You giving Buu that accidental power boost only made the situation much worse than it was originally."

"How?"

"Do you know how Super Buu was created?"

Remembering the tall, muscular version of Majin Buu, T.P. shook his head.

"If I had to make an analogy, you could say it was similar to the process of taking metals like gold or silver from somewhere and melting them down, causing all the impurities inside of the metals to surface for the user to take out. Majin Buu had befriended a dog, and the dog was shot down. The result was Buu getting so angry that his body heated up dramatically, and it caused his body to split into two of himself. In this case, the Majin Buu you once fought became so heated up that all the impure parts of him surfaced and came out of his body in one huge mass. The result was the original Buu becoming the "Good" or "Pure" Buu, and the part that came out of him turning into the "Evil" or "Impure" Buu. The two Buus fought each other, and the Evil Buu easily overpowered the Good Buu. In a moment of desperation, the Good Buu tried to turn the Evil Buu into chocolate, only for the Evil one to blow his attack back and make the Good Buu get turned into chocolate and eating him. The result was the Good Buu getting absorbed, turning him into Super Buu."

"Okay," T.P. said slowly, "What does that have to do with me causing the universe to get destroyed though?"

"In the timeline you went to, where you gave Buu a larger surplus of energy, Buu had a power boost coming from the energy you gave to him that his body apparently didn't recognize as an impurity, so, when the time for the fight against the Good and Evil Buus came to pass, the Good Buu ended up winning."

"Shouldn't that be a good thing?"

"You would think." Trunks responded.

"But...?"

"The original Super Buu was basically what happened when the Evil Buu absorbed the Good Buu, causing him to take all of his powers and part of his personality, which at times displayed full dominance over Super Buu's actions," T.P. listened closely while Trunks explained it to him, "So in the reverse situation, the same thing happened when the Good Buu absorbed the Evil Buu. The result created a version of the Good Buu that was heavily influenced by the Evil Buu's thoughts and motives."

"So then, that Buu ended up destroying everything?" T.P. asked the question he was scared to know the answer to.

"Yes, that version of Super Buu went on to absorb everything relentlessly, not stopping until the entire universe had been turned into candy of some type for him to eat. All that was left was Kami's Lookout and the Sun." Trunks finished.

"Is there any way for me to fix it?" T.P. asked hesitantly.

"I already tried." Trunks replied, shrugging his shoulders, "But every single time I try going there to set the timeline right, there's always this man named Popo that's waiting for me on this floating carpet, telling me to leave. Whenever I refused to, he would attack me, then knock me out before sending me back to the Time Vault."

"How? It's not like we can just send people back to the Time Vault at will. They need to use a Scroll or a time machine, don't they?" T.P. asked, the name Popo making his nostrils widen themselves as he remembered the punch to the face the lidless eyed man had given him.

"From what the Supreme Kai of Time told me, he would create a worm hole and throw me through it."

"You mean like the one Demigra made?" T.P. asked as the red-haired demon god appeared in his mind's eye.

"Yes."

T.P. was silent for a moment, then asked Trunks, "Just what the heck is Popo anyways?"

"I never thought to ask when I first met him, but something is obviously different from the last time I saw him."

"How?"

"He was..." Trunks used his brain to its greatest capacity before he finished his sentence, "... less off-putting the first time we met."

T.P. recalled his conversation with Popo, and realized that the word "off-putting" was actually a reasonable way to describe his first impression of the man.

"Anyways," Trunks said, "I say all of that to say, we have another problem on our hands now."

"What is it?" T.P. sensed the serious tone in Trunks' voice, and Trunks crossed his arms in his chair, looking down in thought.

"The alternate Super Buu that absorbed all of the universe is here now."

T.P.'s eyes widened, him getting off the bed as he hurried to get onto his feet, standing up in front of Trunks, "Is he going to absorb everyone here?"

Trunks lifted a hand to him, "Calm down, that isn't what he's here for."

T.P. saw Trunks' hand, and hearing his words, T.P. stood there for a moment before sitting back on the bed, it creaking under his weight.

"What is he here for then?"

"He said he wanted to apply for the Time Patrol," Trunks answered, "And he wanted to stay here."

T.P. stared at him.

"It was either that or he'd go off to absorb other people." Trunks explained further.

"And you went with him joining?"

"No. I told him he had to go through a series of tests before he could join, and when he asked what type of test he needed to do, one of the recruits you brought with you said he needed for me to gauge his strength first."

T.P. realized that the person Trunks was referring to was Sky after a moment of thought.

"Then what happened?" T.P. asked.

"He beat us all to a pulp." Trunks said in a monotone, "And looking at you, you didn't do so well against him yourself."

T.P. looked down at his stomach, reaching up and placing his hand lightly on the hole in his clothes.

It was then that he realized it.

"Wait, so you're saying that the Super Buu that absorbed everything..."

"Was in fact the gray skinned Majin everyone was defeated by." Trunks finished his sentence, "For some reason he wants everyone to call him "Dumpling" for some reason."

T.P. blinked at that.

"Why?" He asked after a moment.

"I don't know."

"That name sounds so weird... it's so anticlimactic a name for someone who destroyed an entire universe..."

Just imagining that in a conversation sounded ridiculous.

In his mind's eye, T.P. imagined two random people walking past each other, one of them speaking first, "Have you heard about the guy who destroyed the universe?"

"No, what's his name?" The other asked in response.

"Dumpling." The other would answer.

The name just didn't suit the nature of his actions...

Trunks voice took T.P. out of his thoughts, "The same can be said about Demigra. He has the same name as a sauce on Earth."

"What?" T.P. wanted to laugh, but seeing the serious look on Trunks' face prevented him from doing so.

"I'm not joking. There's an actual sauce named "demigra" on Earth."

"Huh... I wonder how that happened..." T.P. looked down in wonder.

"Anyways, he'll be going on Time Patrols when the time comes for it. So I'm telling you to let you know."

"Just as long as we don't have a repeat of everyone dying, I'll be okay with that. Is it safe to assume the Supreme Kai of Time healed me?" T.P. looked down at the hole in his stomach.

"Yes, she healed all of us." Trunks sighed, holding his forehead in his hand tiredly, "She really pushed herself for our sakes."

"Where is she now? I want to at least thank her."

"She's resting at the moment. It'd be best not to bother her right now." Trunks said, waving at him to sit back down when T.P. stood up.

He nodded, sitting back down and asking another question, "Where is that guy now? Dumpling or whatever his name is." He added the last part when he saw Trunks' questioning look.

"He should be somewhere in the Time Nest right now." Trunks said, getting up from his chair and walking to the door, opening it quickly, "Come on, we should probably go and tell him -"

The sound of dishes moving in the kitchen made both men freeze simultaneously.

Quickly after that, they heard the sound of food being uncovered, and T.P. and Trunks shared a look between each other as they both felt a sinister energy fill the air.

They knew that there could only be one thing that could be the cause of the energy, and with Trunks knowing that the Supreme Kai of Time was in her room, that could only mean one thing.

Both men sprinted to the kitchen, reaching there in a nanosecond's time, finding the form of Dumplin about to put a spoon of a beautifully crafted piece of ravioli into his mouth.

Despite him already disliking the Majin in front of him for his actions, Trunks moved, smacking the spoon out of his hand, the ravioli flying through the air, the spoon clattering loudly on the floor.

"I'm sorry," Trunks started to speak, "But I forgot to warn -"

Dumplin's gloved fist extended itself and punched Trunks square in the face, launching him off of his feet, T.P. just barely managing to catch Trunks' body, his balance thrown off from the impact Trunks' body had on him, T.P. being pushed onto his butt as he looked down at Trunks, who's nose was bleeding heavily as his head lolled itself around.

"Trunks, are you okay?!" T.P. yelled in urgency.

"Yes Gohan, I'll try harder to become a Super Saiyan!" Trunks said in a heavy daze, his voice coming out weirdly, as though he were 13 instead of 23.

"It's not Gohan, it's T.P.! You need to pull through this!"

"I don't know if I can do it Gohan..." With a grunt, Trunks' head hung itself to his left, his body going limp.

"Trunks? Trunks!" T.P. hugged his partner, tears welling up in his eyes, "Don't you dare die on me..." He threw his head back, the tears flowing out of his eyelids, screaming up towards the ceiling as loudly as possible, "TRUNKS!"

In the midst of the melodrama happening to his immediate right, Dumplin had picked up his spoon from the floor, walking up the steps that led to the sink and rinsing the metal off before floating over to the pot of food, taking up another piece of ravioli and putting it in his mouth, him unabated in his meal as he chewed on it.

As the chewed up contents rolled over his tongue, Dumplin's entire body became rigid, and he fell from his position in the air, slamming down on the ground, him as limp as he'd made Trunks.

Karma truly was a relentless bitch.

* * *

_The young man felt himself being moved to and fro by a pair of small hands, the hands' owner using her voice to speak to him._

_Feeling tired, the young man groaned lightly, turning himself over and away from the hands that tried to rouse him._

_The girl who looked at the young man's sleeping face scowled lightly, then grasped his arm, shaking it harshly, "Trunks! Wake up!"_

_"Not now..." He responded tiredly, Trunks still half-asleep._

_It was unusual for the man to not immediately wake up at her request, and the young girl who spoke to him tilted her head in confusion at this._

_"Trunks? Are you okay?" She shook him again, but gently this time._

_Trunks opened his eyes, finding that he was facing a wall, the hands that shook him still doing so._

_Speaking with the intention to stop the shaking hands, Trunks said with a tired voice, "I'm up."_

_The hands stopped and pulled away from him at last, and Trunks pulled himself up into a sitting position in his bed, wearing his typical black tank top, his eyes looking to his left to find the person who woke him up._

_"Pan?" He asked after a moment._

_"Good morning!" The ten year old girl said happily._

_"Why are you here?" Trunks asked the girl in a tired voice._

_Pan's smile dropped at this question, "Did you forget?"_

_Trunks looked at her in confusion._

_"You said you'd teach me how to do that "Burning Attack" thing." Pan said, "Do you remember? You promised."_

_At her words, Trunks realized that he'd forgotten, and his eyes found the clock in his room, seeing that it was close to being 7:30._

_Seeing this, Trunks looked around the room, seeing that many things were different than they usually were..._

_He shook the thoughts out of his mind, then smiled as he looked at Pan again, "Sorry, I did forget, but I'll teach it to you Pan."_

_That was right, Trunks thought to himself, he still had a few hours left before it'd be time for him..._

_As he thought about the events that he was promised would happen, Trunks' eyes flickered with sadness, his smile, which was one of genuine gregarity, falling to a small frown._

_Seeing this, Pan asked him the obvious question, "What's wrong?"_

_Trunks blinked, as though he were broken from a lapse of thought, and looked at Pan again, "Don't worry Pan, there's nothing wrong."_

_He smiled at her again, and Pan was relaxed by his look._

_It was a look fitting for their relationship, like an uncle seeing the niece he cared deeply for walking into the room._

_"Alright, let's get started Pan." Trunks pushed his legs off of the bed, getting up and pulling the blanket back into place, a reflex he'd drilled into himself even after the Capsule Corporation's revival._

_"Okay!" Pan said behind him._

Trunks opened his closed eyes slowly, getting up in his bed and looking around.

He had been lying in his bedroom, but it wasn't the same one where Pan had woken him up all those months ago.

The one he was inside of then was the same one he'd rested in inside of the Time Nest.

Though he'd asked if T.P. wanted a room, the man curtly refused to do so, saying he enjoyed resting on the clock tower.

Seeing that no one else was in the room, Trunks sighed heavily, bringing his hand up and pressing it into his forehead.

"You need to get over it Trunks..." The man said to himself.

It had been over three months since that day, and yet Trunks would still feel guilt as he remembered it.

The day the Supreme Kai of Time took him to the Time Nest.

Many times, Trunks would tell himself that he didn't deserve what he wanted because of his apparent sin for time traveling, yet the guilt he felt that day still remained, even to that moment.

He could remember it vividly...

_Pan's hands wrapped tightly around the man's wrist when he started to walk slowly to the short woman in high heels a few meters away from the duo, Trunks having said his goodbyes to his disciple and mother, Bulma seeing Pan's action and sighing deeply._

_Trunks stopped at Pan grasping his hand, and looked down at her, her looking back up at him._

_Before, when he'd told her, she seemed fine, but now tears had welled up in her eyes._

_"Please don't go..." She pleaded, grasping Trunks' wrist tightly._

_Trunks' voice was firm, "We've been over this already, I can't stay here."_

_"You promised that you'd teach me a lot of other things," Pan said, obviously trying to reason with him, to convince him not to go, "You promised, didn't you?"_

_"Yes Pan... I promised, but..." Trunks struggled to keep his voice from unveiling the emotions he felt._

_He couldn't show them._

_If he did then he wouldn't listen to the part of his mind that controlled reason..._

_"If you promised, then you can't leave, can you?"_

_Trunks closed his eyes, clenching his fists._

_He knew he wanted to stay._

_Nothing more stood out to the boy more than that simple fact._

_But he couldn't..._

_"Trunks, please..."_

_Hearing Pan's voice, Trunks opened his eyes, and the pain he felt became transparent._

_He turned away from Pan, looking to the Supreme Kai of Time, then turned back to face Pan again, kneeling himself down in front of her to meet her eyes, bringing his hands up to place them on each of her shoulders._

_He smiled to her now crying face, and then spoke the simple truth of the matter to the girl in front of him._

_"I can't stay Pan. No matter how much I want to, I can't."_

_Pan's tears only grew after he said these words, and Trunks pulled the girl into his arms, embracing her snugly, whispering into her ear a simple sentence._

_When he finished speaking it, Pan punched him hard in the chest, the blow being strong enough that it would easily kill any normal person, but not Trunks._

_"You jerk..." Her voice cracked as she cried into her shoulder, "You really think I'd believe something like that?"_

_"It's the only thing I can do right now." Trunks said, pulling away from her, looking her in the eyes, "I know this is hard, but I need you to be strong Pan. Keep training like you have been. Protecting Earth is going to be your responsibility now."_

_Pan looked down, nodding her head slowly._

_"That's a good girl." Trunks smiled lightly, and he slowly stood up, "You'll grow up to be a wonderful woman. I know it."_

_Turning his back on Pan, Trunks walked to the Supreme Kai of Time, the smile he had falling to a saddened frown._

_The Supreme Kai of Time looked up at him, hands on her hips, "Are you ready?"_

_Trunks nodded wordlessly, and she raised up the scroll in her hand, Trunks taking a hold of it, "Imagine the Time Nest on the count of three. One," Trunks found himself involuntarily looking back towards Pan, his mother walking behind her and kneeling by the ten year old's side, wrapping a comforting arm around her, Pan catching his eyes and holding his gaze with her own, "Two," Trunks couldn't even find it within himself to smile reassuringly at Pan anymore, and moved his eyes to look away from her, "Three."_

_Trunks closed his eyes, and it was when he imagined the Time Nest that he felt the movement of his surroundings._

_When his feet found solid ground again, Trunks opened his eyes and found he was there, in the Time Nest._

_It was at that moment that Trunks felt the finality of the situation he was in._

_Realizing he was now there, Trunks asked the question, "Can I ever go back to see them?"_

_The Supreme Kai of Time saw his expression, yet shook her head, "I'm afraid you can't. From this moment on, you aren't allowed to leave the Time Nest."_

_The ground beneath Trunks seemed to feel as though it wasn't really there after she said that, and he closed his eyes, "Really?" His voice felt hollow, even to him, its owner, "I see."_

_He turned and looked at his new surroundings, looking at the Time Nest but not really seeing it._

_In that moment, it occurred to the 23 year old that this was basically the same as a life-sentence._

_He wouldn't be able to keep his promise to Pan after all..._

Remembering his first time going into the Time Nest, Trunks sat up, pulling his legs off of the bed and looking in front of himself.

He reached his hands out and pressed them down on imaginary shoulders, and he could vaguely make out a Pan lookalike in his mind's eye.

He could vividly remember the promise he'd made to Pan in that point in time, and the guilt within him rose again.

"I promised her that I'd see her again..." Trunks said to himself.

His hands lowered themselves, falling onto his knees, and he closed his eyes.

He had genuinely tried to keep that one promise he'd made to Pan.

He tried to the first chance he had.

He had tried sneaking out of the Time Nest via one of the Scrolls of Eternity, yet the Supreme Kai of Time caught onto him quickly, forcing him not to go.

Looking up at the ceiling with the same hollow look he had when he had first arrived, Trunks thought about his situation.

He was never allowed to leave the Time Nest, being a simple observer to other people in time.

The Time Nest and Toki-Toki Plaza made up his entire world.

And he was never allowed to leave...

Trunks knew himself enough that he always welcomed the idea of new recruits coming in.

Even if they would only come and go whenever work would come for them, he was always happy to see newcomers.

That always meant he was one step away from not being utterly alone with the woman who'd taken him out of the life he loved for something he didn't even realize was wrong.

Trunks didn't resent the Supreme Kai of Time, but he often wished she had gone about punishing him differently.

He was never able to bear looking at the Pan from the timeline where Goku and his father had gained Super Saiyan 4 forms, because it would only remind him of the Pan from his timeline.

Trunks closed his eyes again, then stood himself up.

He needed to get to work, he told himself.

He had to keep doing his duty as the leader of the Time Patrol.

* * *

A/N: This chapter feels a lot like filler. Over 9,000 words for a character establishment chapter with a flashback.


	5. The Raging Hirudegarn

_Gohan breathed heavily, a hand on his chest as he held his rapidly beating heart, looking up at the monstrous pair of legs that towered over him._

_The sight was strange._

_A young Saiyan brought to his knees by a pair of legs that couldn't be stopped by anything._

_He almost wished it were a punchline to some bad joke._

_Gohan turned behind himself, looking at the Namekians behind him, "All of you, you need to run." He roared over the howl of the winds that the legs brought to his eardrums, "Take the Dragon Balls and wish for Piccolo and Vegeta to return to life, and use the last wish to unlock that music box!"_

_"But Gohan," Dende's eyes were wide in terror as he looked up at the legs, "We can't leave you alone to fight this!"_

_"You need to go or it'll be too late!" Gohan yelled in urgency, the winds gaining strength as they blew under him, Gohan's yells of surprise not stopping it from pushing his body in countless directions._

_"Gohan!" Dende ran forward, trying to run to aid his friend, despite the protests of the people behind him._

_"Dende," Gohan forced himself not to become disoriented, "Please, GO!"_

_Dende still visibly hesitated, but before he could decide whether or not to follow Gohan's command, the elder Namekian behind the healer decided for him, running behind Dende and wrapping an arm around his stomach, turning and running off despite Dende's protests._

_Gohan struggled to get out of the wind's might grip, and he snarled, his energy spiking to full strength, it blowing out a small wave that neutralized the winds that jerked him around so violently._

_With his sense of balance restored, Gohan glared down at the two legged monster before him, then sped towards it with a cry of desperation and anger._

_And somewhere, far out into New Namek's orbit, was a star, it having metal encasing it instead of light and flames, tendrils poking out of its sides freakishly._

_Though they shared few, if any, physical traits, one thing both the legs and the star had in common was the place they gained their powers from, it being a dark purple glow around their masses._

* * *

Trunks had laid the Scroll down on the center counter of the Time Vault, the damage caused by Dumplin fixed in its entirety.

T.P. stood next to him, eyes narrowed somewhat, "So this is what they changed."

"Yes."

"If I remember it right, in this timeline, Gohan was supposed to summon the dragon with help from the Namekians, right?"

Trunks nodded.

"In the timeline, they were able to do that without that giant pair of legs coming towards them, weren't they?"

"Yes, they were." Trunks gave the Scroll a pensive gaze, "Gohan originally went to Namek with the intention of bringing my father, Piccolo and Krillin back to life, and then use the Namekian Dragon Balls again to bring Chiaotzu, Tien, and Yamcha back to life. However, as things went on Namek, it didn't end as well as he'd hoped it would."

"Did Android 17 and 18 being there cause trouble on Namek?"

"No." Trunks turned from the Scroll on the counter, arms crossed in thought, "In the original timeline, they were never there to begin with."

"Why are they there now then?" T.P. looked back at the scroll in wonder.

Trunks uncrossed his arms, bringing his hands up to be on level with his shoulders, shrugging, "I can only guess that it's Towa's magic influencing them." He lowered his arms, letting them fall down past his waist, and looked at the Scroll, "Regardless, when Gohan went to Namek and used the Dragon Balls for the first time, he brought back Father and Piccolo, but not Krillin. Instead he helped an old man who had appeared there with a music box that wouldn't play."

"I know." T.P. said, taking the Scroll in his hands and glancing up at Trunks, "All I need to do is give them enough time to summon the dragon and bring those two back to life, right?"

"Yes. But the enemy you'll be facing is very powerful. It'd be best if you were careful when fighting."

Hearing the swordsman say this, T.P. closed the Scroll, looking up at him, "I'll keep that in mind."

With the Scroll of Eternity tucked tightly in his now gloved fist, T.P. pushed it forward, holding it as far away from him as possible, seeing the image of Namek in his mind's eye without even closing his eyelids, light consuming his body the next second.

* * *

As he appeared on Namek a few seconds later, T.P. looked at the backs of many Namekians dressed in traditional clothes, his scouter picking up a power level that far surpassed the group that bunched itself together, T.P. having no doubts in his mind that it was Gohan his scouter was picking up.

He walked slowly to the group, his power level lowered to the greatest extent possible, eyes wary for any signs of the giant legs.

"Are you sure those are the three you'd like to bring back Gohan?" A voice said from within the crowd.

"Yes. I need to bring back the strongest people possible if I want to beat the androids after all." The young voice of Gohan replied, in a matter of fact tone.

"Are you sure you'd like to do that? There's a much stronger person you can bring out." Came a new voice.

It carried the sound of a wizened old man's voice, somewhat wheezy, yet at the same time, firm enough to understand, even from the distance T.P. was from it.

"Hoi, we've been through this several times."

If things had been going on the same way as how T.P. had seen it in the scroll, Gohan would've glared at the man called Hoi, who held a music box in his hand.

"Calm down. I simply wish to help you."

Gohan narrowed his eyes at the man before him, Hoi stepping closer to him.

"There is a warrior with a weapon capable of weakening the monster that has been terrorizing this world. He was sealed inside of this box many centuries ago however. If you opened it with the Dragon Balls' power, the warrior would be freed from his prison."

"You've told me that already. How are you so sure that he'd be strong enough to help us?" Gohan responded, using a voice that was a mixture of a person who was considering an alternative and a person who was merely exasperated at being told something he'd been told several times already.

"He is the only person with the power to defeat the monster. As I'm sure you're aware, its power far surpasses your own. Would you daresay that you would be able to defeat it with your allies once they'd been revived?"

Though Gohan was silent, the flicker of fear in his eyes as he remembered the last time he'd gone to battle with the "monster" Hoi had been speaking about revealed his feelings on the matter.

Reaching up and brushing a finger against his cheek, Gohan had been surprised that he was still alive, even with the factor of Dende's healing abilities, with only a scar to remember it by.

"I know I can't beat it." Gohan finally said, with a tone of finality, lowering his hand slowly, "But I have to bring everyone else back first."

"Are you concerned about the well-being of the planet?" Hoi said to Gohan with a smile that was anything but comforting, "You must have realized the monster's raw power is enough to destroy anything in its path. Are you willing to wait the alotted time before you can finally open the seal on this warrior, after you've revived your allies, and risk such a thing causing more destruction than it already has?"

Gohan looked down, knowing within himself that the man was right.

The monster's power well surpassed Frieza's energy, and there was no telling how much destruction it would cause if left alone.

If what Hoi was saying had been true, then Gohan would need to prioritize unsealing the warrior. Compared to that two legged monster, even the androids seemed to be a minor threat.

But despite this, Gohan had felt something very off about the man in front of him since the moment they had met.

His ki sense enabled him to see certain things about people; their strength, their intentions, their emotions, and, especially, their benevolence, lack thereof, or malevolence, were all put out for his sixth sense to see.

And though Hoi's words seemed like the words of a man simply trying to help, as he'd claimed, Gohan was unable to shake off the strength of the malevolence within Hoi's ki.

It was so great that even Gohan, the first person who'd listened when Hoi said he wanted to talk to him, felt greatly unnerved by it.

What he wasn't sure about was why Hoi had such malevolence emitting from him.

What was causing his sixth sense to tell him keep as far away from Hoi as possible, when all his other senses told him he was the equivalent of being relatively harmless?

Seeing his indecision, Hoi turned away, looking into the bright sky, "You need to make your decision soon. Be sure to make the right one, or you'll regret it greatly."

Gohan felt the weight of his dilemma come onto his shoulders, in the form of a heavy burden.

The monster was the greatest threat, yes, but then, the androids were still a threat as well.

If he made the choice to not bring his allies back, then there'd be no chance for him to defeat the androids at all.

What was the better route to take?

Should he prioritize the monster's destruction, or the androids?

Either way, people would end up dying in massive numbers.

Gohan glanced around himself, seeing the Namekians that surrounded him.

There were 25 people huddled in the group, including Gohan and Hoi.

The Namekian's numbers had been reduced greatly, and either way, they would most likely end up dying if either way ended up happening.

Gohan closed his eyes in frustration, cursing the monster and twice cursing the androids for causing him to be put into this moment of indecision to begin with.

Hoi turned to the half-Saiyan boy, "Well?"

"I... can't choose..." Gohan opened his eyes slowly, speaking honestly.

If only his ship hadn't been destroyed in one of the fights against the monster.

At least then Gohan would be able to transport all the surviving Namekians to Earth and revive everyone there.

Hoi's smile dropped, "I see. Then you really are a fool."

Gohan's eyes snapped up at Hoi at this, "Huh?"

"A fool is someone who would take steps to let his problems grow instead of lessen. You are being a fool right now, when you caused so much destruction by coming here."

Gohan's teeth clenched tightly, but he said nothing.

"If you really care about this suffering race, then unseal the warrior now. Unless you wished to branded a fool and a killer."

"Be quiet!" One voice silenced Hoi, it being Dende. "Gohan has done nothing but try to do everything he could for our sakes! Don't belittle him and say he caused this!"

Hoi looked at Dende in surprise, not as though he hadn't expected Dende's words, but rather a surprise that revealed he hadn't even fully realized Dende had been there.

Gohan looked at Dende, the stress the situation gave him being visible in his body language and facial features, and he looked back at Hoi, voice hesitant at first but gaining strength as he spoke, "Right now, that monster is too unpredictable." Gohan said this with a far-away look, as though he were thinking out loud. "But at the same time, we won't survive if that monster attacks again. We need safety first, but if we choose to revive Krillin and have him help to fight the androids, or unseal the warrior, we're going to have a problem to deal with either way."

Gohan wasn't sure of what to think of Hoi's words about the sealed warrior.

The malevolence in his ki made the young man wonder if Hoi was only saying this to hurt the boy in the long run by making him waste one of the wishes.

If the warrior turned out to be someone who's ability to fight the monster was nil, then Gohan would have automatically wasted a few months worth of precious time for when the dragon balls would reach the time to use them again.

For all that time, Krillin could've been aiding him, with the support of the Kaioken technique he was learning from King Kai at that moment in the Other World, in destroying the androids.

Just one of his late allies would've been a tremendous help to Gohan against the androids.

He was never very good at fighting two against one after all.

Yet behind the ten year old's reasoning came the small faith that Hoi had been telling the truth all along, that there was in fact a warrior that could defeat the monster that had been decimating the Namekian population.

If Gohan chanced waiting until he'd revived all of his allies to unseal the warrior, then that would take up the better part of a year to accomplish.

That would be a very long time to wait until they could defeat the monster once and for all.

And even then, if the monster killed the Grand Elder, then the dragon balls would become useless either way.

What was he supposed to do?

"Make your choice Gohan. Many things hang in the balance." Hoi's voice ebbed into his mind.

It was frustration, not anger nor agitation, that drove Gohan to snap in a rough voice, "I know! You don't have to tell me over and over again!"

"I beg to differ. You still haven't made the obvious choice."

Gohan's fists clenched.

"Are you really going to prove my point and let yourself stand there like a pitiful fool?"

"Shut up!" Gohan snarled, turning to Dende, his glare making his friend quail beneath it, "Dende, summon the dragon. I've made up my mind."

"R-Really?" Dende asked in surprise, "What do want to do?"

"I'm going to revive Krillin!" Gohan's eyes were steel hard in determination.

Anger had replaced the parts of his mind that allowed for logic to control his decisions, and despite Gohan feeling it in the back of his mind that this might not have been the best choice, the anger that not only influenced him, but governed him, would not let him listen to it.

Dende nodded his head to Gohan, and Hoi scoffed at Gohan's words, "You wil be a fool for the rest of your life."

A light formed in Gohan's hand as he concentrated ki into it, but the boy took a heavy breath, and calmed himself down enough not to throw the ball at Hoi's face.

Dende rose to his feet as he pushed his hands towards the dragon balls, eyes steady as he started to speak in his native tongue the incantation of summoning the Namekian dragon Porunga.

Before Dende could even finish however, Gohan's eyes widened when he felt a great energy appear through his ki sense, and sensing the monster's presence, Gohan spoke, "Dende, wait! You need to run with the dragon balls!"

"What?" Dende said in confusion, hands still raised towards the dragon balls in his confusion.

The next second, seemingly out of thin air, came the sight of a giant pair of legs that had a yellow-grayish color to them, feet holding themselves in the ground as the Namekians, half-Saiyan, and old man gazed up at it.

A fearful awe drove everyone to silence, no one sure what to do as they saw the legs before them, before Gohan's yell stirred everyone to their senses, "RUN!"

The fear of the situation drove the people to immediately start flying away, a few Namekians grabbing the dragon balls before flying off themselves, Gohan running to Hoi's side despite him being closest to the monster, his anger towards the man forgotten, bending down and hugging the man to his body, flying away after the Namekians at top speed.

"You won't be able to defeat it." Hoi said, "You'd better change your mind if you want to save everyone -"

Suddenly, when Gohan abruptly stopped flying, he also stopped hugging Hoi's body to his own, the elderly man falling fast from his elevation, hitting the ground hard and rolling on it, his body stopping in front of where the Namekians had stopped, looking back to make sure Gohan was alright, Hoi screaming out in pain.

"Why would you drop me like that?!" Hoi roared up at Gohan.

He was unable to find within himself the will not to feign innocence, bringing a hand over his mouth as though aghast at himself, before turning away slightly away in mock-embarassment.

"Oops. I'm sorry." Hoi glared at Gohan, who's voice and expression lacked the slightest trace of guilt.

Gohan turned back to the form of the monster, the winds picking up harder, before he launched himself forward, towards the monster, his energy growing to its greatest height, him yelling back towards Dende, "Summon the dragon!"

It was at this point that T.P. entered the fray, raising his power level greatly, body giving off a golden glow as he flew forward, Gohan casting a glance towards T.P.

"Who are you?" Gohan asked him, and T.P. didn't respond, bursting past him, intent on attacking the monster in front of him.

He sped towards its left leg, concentrating a great deal of energy into his fist as he pulled his left arm back, thrusting it forward with all his might, it colliding with the knee.

The leg, bent, straightened itself at the force behind T.P.'s punch, yet the now golden-haired Saiyan couldn't tell if he had hurt it or not.

It was most likely the latter, as the very second T.P. acknowledged the fact that it had straightened its bent knee, it thrust it back forward, the knee itself bigger than his entire body, T.P. slammed face first into it, limbs sprawled on the surface that was pushing against him too quickly for him to move, before it stopped its motion, the knee launching T.P. through the air, his bearings lost as he sailed through it, his hair and aura losing their golden color in sync with his lost concentration, his scouter having been greatly cracked from the attack.

By the time he'd recovered, T.P.'s plummeting body had already slammed hard into the ground, Gohan seeing the man fall and looking back up at the pair of legs, concentrating energy into his palms and launching an onslaught of ki balls at the legs, them making a trail of small explosions on the right leg, it not seeming to react to his attacks.

Scowling, Gohan sped towards the monster's waist, blue aura covering his body, him punching the center of the monster's waist over and over again, the monster being forced to step back with each punch to its center of gravity in order to keep its balance.

Soon, as T.P. pulled himself back onto his feet, he saw Gohan punching the monster's waist, and he rapidly shook his head to shake off his lightheadedness, flying up to be at Gohan's side, Gohan being startled by the Saiyan joining in once more but not complaining, the two giving an endless onslaught of punches towards the monster's waist, its footing coming closer and closer to the sea, Gohan yelling at T.P. after pulling back when the monster was close enough to the water, "Hey, you need to get back!"

T.P. looked at Gohan, seeing him bringing his hands forward, his right hand pulled up and left hand hanging downward, wrist touching, and immediately realized what he wanted to do, flying to Gohan's side and replicating the boy's actions.

"Ka-me," The two said in unison, balls of blue light forming in their hands, "Ha-me," They brought their hands to their sides, the balls growing in size, "HA!"

The two Saiyans thrust their balls of energy forward, the twin beams hitting the monster's waist and blowing it back, its tail swishing powerfully up at them, Gohan and T.P. parting ways to dodge it, it swinging hard between them, before it swung down powerfully again, hitting Gohan hard in the head, the hit throwing Gohan down towards the ground, him screaming out in pain, him barely managing to recover and land on the ground, landing on his left bent knee, his right foot making a low clap against the dirt beneath him, his left hand pushed forward so as to support his balance and his right hand brought up as a means of easing the pain in his head that he felt, him greatly disoriented, groaning deeply under his breath.

As T.P. flew towards Gohan to check to see if he was alright, Hoi looked at Dende, who watched the skirmish with widened eyes, "Summon the dragon and unseal the warrior. If you don't do it soon, it will be too late for him!"

Dende looked at Hoi as he heard this, then looked down at the dragon balls, having felt the monster's energy once more.

Even if Dende could revive all of Gohan's friends at once and have them transported to Namek, it wouldn't make any difference.

The monster was simply too powerful.

Knowing this, Dende nodded, turning to the dragon balls, hands pushed forward, "Everyone stand back!"

When everyone complied with his words, Dende recited the incantation, "_TAKKARAPUTO, POPPORUNGA!_"

The dragon balls glowed, and in a blinding light, the form of a giant green dragon appeared, it towering over the Namekians as much as the monster had towered over Gohan.

"I am Porunga, dragon of dreams. Speak your three wishes."

"Porunga, please unseal the warrior from inside of this music box!" The dragon looked at the old man who spoke, Hoi smiling happily, bringing up his music box to emphasize what he was talking about.

Seeing Porunga's look, Dende spoke to the dragon in his native tongue, interpreting what Hoi had wished for.

Despite the interpretation, Porunga still stared down at Hoi for a long moment, and as time passed, Dende wondered what was wrong, "Porunga?"

"Are you certain that is what you wish for?" Porunga asked, his gaze never leaving Hoi.

Dende blinked in surprise, but said with earnesty in Namekian, "Yes, we are in great need of the help of the warrior inside of it!"

Again, Porunga paused, gazing at Hoi, before he finally said, "Very well."

Porunga's eyes glowed brightly, and the music box in Hoi's hand started to play immediately, it being a simple song, likened to that of a lullaby, and at its sound, the monster in the distance, having started to pull itself out of the water, suddenly stopped its movements, becoming completely still.

As the song continued, the music box opened, and the brightly glowing form of a man appeared over it, his eyes closed, a flute tucked into his mouth, a sword slung over his shoulder.

Seconds passed as the song neared its end, it no longer coming from the music box, but from the man, who hovered above the music box, his glow fading to reveal a person with reddish hair and chalk white skin, blowing into his flute, the monster dissipating completely.

As the song stopped, the warrior opened his closed eyelids, revealing emerald green eyes, him floating to the ground and looking around himself, pulling his flute from his mouth.

As he finally turned around and saw Hoi, looking with an ecstatic expression at the opened music box, the pale skinned man's eyes widened in realization, before his eyes hardened into a glare.

"What have you done?" He said in a rough voice.

"I've freed you from your prison Tapion." Hoi responded, yet Tapion looked far from pleased at these words.

"I've granted one of your wishes." Porunga said behind Tapion, and he turned to the dragon, "What others do you have for me?"

"Reseal me inside of the box!" Tapion yelled without hesitation.

"I'm afraid that will be impossible now Tapion." Hoi said behind him.

The man turned to face Hoi, and he saw that the music box was no longer in his hands.

Looking at Hoi's feet, Tapion's eyes widened again in horror, the music box having broken itself into multiple pieces.

Realizing the music box's state, Tapion looked back up at Hoi once more, the death glare he had not making Hoi's smile falter in the slightest.

The sound of a curse flew past Tapion's lips, and he turned to face the Namekians, "Why am I here?"

Dende rose up quickly, "Excuse me, we're sorry if this is sudden, but we need your help very badly."

Tapion turned to him, "My help? With what?"

"Do you have any other wishes?" Porunga asked.

Dende looked up at him, and nodded quickly, speaking in his Namekian tongue once again, _"Please resurrect the Namekian Piccolo."_

Porunga's eyes glowed again, and then receded in brightness, him speaking, "It is done. Do you have any other wish for me to grant?"

Dende nodded, _"Yes, please resurrect the Saiyan, Vegeta."_

"Hm? You wanted to resurrect more than one person?"

Dende seemed startled by this question, but nodded all the same, _"Yes, I would like to."_

"My powers have been strengthened by the new Grand Elder. I now possess the ability to bring many people back with one wish."

Hearing this, Dende's face lit up, happy to hear this.

"Gohan!" Dende yelled, turning to see the half-Saiyan being carried by T.P. near the dragon, the boy's face bleeding heavily, blood pouring itself from the heavy wound to his head.

The monster's tail had done more damage than Gohan himself even realized.

Seeing his friend's wounded state, Dende ran to his friend's side, throwing himself on his knees before Gohan, bringing his hands forward, the glow they had making their magic be projected onto Gohan, his wound sealing itself, the damage he'd taken disappearing quickly.

When he'd recovered enough, Gohan's eyes clenched somewhat, then opened slowly, looking to find Dende healing him still.

"Dende...?"

"Try not to move too much Gohan." Dende said, focused completely on healing him.

"What happened?"

"We unsealed the warrior from the music box Hoi had. As soon as we did that, the monster disappeared."

"What?" Gohan looked at Tapion, who watched them with a quizzical gaze, "What about bringing Krillin back to life?"

"That's the thing." Dende smiled up at his friend, "Porunga has the ability to bring multiple people back to life at once now. So we can resurrect all of your friends at the same time."

Gohan blinked in surprise, then smiled, "That's great news. Could you do that Dende? I'll be okay." Gohan said, grunting as he forced himself to sit up to prove his point.

Dende nodded a bit at Gohan's words, then turned to Porunga, _"Please bring all of Gohan's allies, who were killed by the androids, and all the Namekians killed since Gohan's arrival to come back to life!"_

Porunga's eyes glowed for one final time, and he spoke, "Your wishes have all been granted."

As his body dispersed into light, the dragon balls floated up into the sky, dispersing into seven different directions.

The sky, as dark as night, was restored to its original brightness, and Gohan smiled as he felt the many energies of dead Namekians coming back to life, looking at Dende, who smiled back at him, "All of your friends should be coming back to life now."

"Thanks Dende." Gohan looked at everyone around him, "Thank all of you. I honestly can't thank you enough for what you've done for me."

One Namekian walked to Gohan's side, kneeling down and pressing a hand into his shoulder, "It's the least we could do for someone who helped us so much."

Gohan smiled in response, then turned around, looking at T.P., who had just started to walk away, "Hey, mister! What's your name?"

T.P. stopped at the sound of Gohan's voice, looking back to make sure Gohan had been talking to him, and when he saw Gohan looking straight at him, smiled awkwardly.

"I don't have a name." T.P. said honestly.

"You..." Gohan grunted as he forced himself to stand up, walking towards T.P., "You don't?"

T.P. shook his head no.

"Well, regardless, I have to thank you too. I'm not sure if I would've been able to stall that monster long enough for them to summon the dragon if you hadn't come."

"You probably could've." T.P. turned away from Gohan, knowing for a fact that had Towa not been powering the leg monster up, Gohan would've been able to, at the very least, hold it at bay.

He started walking forward, speaking without turning back to his fellow Saiyan, "I'll be taking my leave now."

"Wait!" T.P. heard the sound of feet moving, and turned to find Gohan running to his side. "You're a really strong fighter. Is there any way for you to help us by staying here?"

T.P. shook his head, "I'm sorry, I honestly wish I could, but I can't. All help you've needed so far, I've already given to you."

"But, I can't beat the androids with my power as it is." Gohan tried to reason.

"Not now, no." T.P. turned to Gohan and smiled, "But you just resurrected all of your friends, right? And you have another warrior who stopped a monster of mass destruction by playing an instrument. You'll be fine."

Gohan didn't seem so sure of himself, and T.P. was unable to fault him for it.

It'd be either insane or dumb of him to actually be sure Gohan's abilities as they were would be enough to defeat the androids.

Every word of encouragement that T.P. had just said had been a lie.

He had already seen the future, had seen it enough to know that disaster would be waiting for Gohan not too long after this point in time.

Though he wanted to stay, T.P. knew he couldn't.

His job as a member of the Time Patrol was only to keep time flowing in the same path that it had originally.

He wasn't allowed to change history in any way that would put it off its original course, be it for better or worse.

With a gaze that looked somewhat frustrated, T.P. turned away from Gohan, pulling the Scroll from out of his pocket and pulling it up, closing his eyes as he disappeared in a flash of light.

* * *

When he reappeared in the Time Vault, T.P. looked to find Trunks turning to him, "You did well. The timeline should be back to normal now."

"Thanks." T.P. responded, surprised to find that his voice came out in a hollow way.

Trunks must've realized it as well.

"What's wrong?"

"It's nothing." T.P. said, not quite understanding why he felt the way he did.

"Are you sure? You look a bit... off."

T.P. didn't respond for a moment.

He never was all that good at hiding his emotions.

With a pause for a moment of thought, T.P. finally asked Trunks the question, "You know about it, don't you? About Tapion and Hirudegarn?"

"You need to be more specific." Trunks responded, crossing his arms.

"You know about what happens to Hirudegarn's powers when Tapion gets unsealed, right?" T.P. rephrased the question.

"Yes, I do." Trunks answered after a short period of silence.

"Doesn't it bother you?" T.P. glanced over at Trunks, seeing that he was looking back the Scroll sitting open on the counter.

Trunks gave no answer to his partner's question.

"Gohan's your master, right?" T.P. turned to face the back of Trunks fully, "As his student, it would be natural for it to bother you, right?"

"What are you getting at?" It was Trunks' turn for his voice to come out in a hollow tone.

"I'm just asking..." T.P. closed his eyes, mentally sighing, telling himself to speak the truth, "I'm just saying that... It should bother you more than it does me. Why do you seem so calm about putting your own master in danger again?"

"The timeline is fixed, he'll survive."

"But none of his friends will."

Trunks didn't respond for a moment.

"...No," he lamented, "They won't."

"Surely it bothers you to put them in harm's way again, right?" The question was rhetorical, "So..."

"You want me to give you permission to change the timeline?" Trunks asked the question that T.P. wanted to know the answer to.

"...Yes. I do." T.P. looked down somewhat, "I hate that I'm just abandoning him, when he obviously needs my help. His friends will just keep dying one by one, and then..."

T.P. couldn't bring himself to even think of what would come after Gohan's friends died again.

It was too much, too great a burden on someone who was only ten years old.

"I understand how you feel. But I can't do that."

"Why not?" T.P. yelled, "What's the point of trying to save people from death when it shouldn't even be that way?"

"I see then. That explains it." Trunks turned to T.P.

"What?"

"You never once went to fix any of the splinter timelines, have you?"

It wasn't a question.

"If you did, you wouldn't be saying what you are now."

"No, I didn't." T.P. said, "Why?"

"A lot of those splinter timelines have several different routes happen. In one route, Frieza manages to kill Goku during their fight on Namek, then goes on to destroy Earth. In another, Super Buu ends up beating everyone who has a chance of killing him."

"Alright, but what does that have to do with this?"

"In those timelines, a person needs to go there and make sure that certain conditions are met, so that the timeline can go down the same path. In the splinter timeline where Frieza defeated Goku, someone needed to kill Frieza before he could escape Namek's destruction. In the splinter timeline where Buu defeated everyone, someone needed to aid him, and make sure that he absolutely defeated and absorbed everyone who fought against him."

"What? Why would anyone do that?"

"So the timeline can go in the same direction as originally. In the Frieza timeline, if someone manages to kill Frieza before Namek explodes, then everyone on Earth can simply wish for Goku to come back to life and have Cell become weaker. That's a smaller change than Earth being destroyed all together, right?"

"That one I understand." T.P. said in a flat tone, "What I don't understand is why in the Buu timeline someone had to help him."

"Because if that splinter timeline went along the regular way, then it'd be changed completely."

"How?"

"For starters, Goku and Gohan would've ended up fusing permanently."

"Eh...?"

"They would use Potora earrings to fuse themselves together into an ultra-powerful warrior that could easily defeat Buu. The fused warrior's name would be "Gohaku". The timeline would progress the same way as before, but without Dende being rescued in Earth's destruction."

"Which would mean...?"

"Everyone would return to their daily life on Earth without forgetting that Majin Buu existed. When the Buu that joined forces with Goku and the others lived on Earth, he'd eventually end up making a family, and eventually, a race, that would constantly be put under ridicule and prejudice."

"So it'd be kind of like how Frieza Clasmen are treated." T.P. tried to sum up the information he'd been given.

"Yes." Trunks confirmed T.P.'s thoughts. "If we don't allow for certain people to die, no matter how good or bad they are, then it'll end up making the situation worse than it already is."

"So you're saying that if we try to get involved with Hirudegarn, and work it so that everyone survives in the end, then it'll just make everything worse?"

"Most likely."

"Well that sucks." T.P. turned away and thought out loud.

"I wish I could help them too. But really, I can't."

"What's wrong with giving someone permission to save someone you care about?"

Trunks turned away from T.P., arms still crossed, looking at the open scroll, "It's more that I don't even have the ability to give that kind of permission to begin with."

"Why?"

"Contrary to popular opinion, I'm really no one's boss around here. I'm more like some secretary." Trunks closed his eyes, "I'm not even allowed to help to do any of the work I assign to people." T.P. couldn't help noticing the frustration in his voice, "I'm just a guy who looks for any problems that need fixing, and has to call someone else for help when I already have the things I need and the knowledge of the problem to fix it."

As bitterness nestled itself within Trunks' tone, T.P. listened silently.

"I have the grandeur honor of having to watch my beloved friends and allies _die _right in front of my eyes! Over and over and over and _over_! What an awesome job I have!" Sarcasm found its way in there as well, T.P. noted. "A job with no vacation days, where there's salary for literally everyone except for you and me -" (Wait, people were getting paid? T.P. thought.) "- and I can't even talk to my freaking family!"

Trunks was yelling now, anger surfacing from a place T.P. never knew existed.

"Oh what a wonderful place this is! A place where I can get a good view of Snake Way but can't so much as touch the damn thing! Where my entire universe is a small plaza where for a month I only had a 75,000,000 year old goddess and owl for company, with it being only made more awkward by the former doing everything within her reasonable power to read my diary!"

"You have a diary?"

"Yes!" T.P. flinched at Trunks' yell as he turned to him, "And it is the only refuge I have in this god forsaken place!"

T.P. felt the urge to bring up the fact that the Time Nest couldn't be "god forsaken" when there were two resident gods living there, but, following his better judgement, he didn't bring it up.

"And you know what makes it worse? I once walked in on an all girls' meeting, and in that meeting, they were organizing for which people they'd date and setting deadlines to take guys out!"

T.P. sensed he probably should've felt the anguish that Trunks seemed to be feeling, but before he thought it through, he asked curiously, "Was my name brought up?"

Trunks' face became grim, but he nodded slowly.

"Who got assigned to me?"

Trunks looked down, head hung low, shoulders sagging, but he didn't answer.

"Trunks?"

Trunks looked up at T.P., "There wasn't anyone assigned to you. They said you already had someone."

His voice came out hollow, but T.P. didn't take much mind to it.

Instead, he thought about the man's words, him becoming confused very quickly.

"I'm not dating anyone though..."

"I know you aren't. I know the person they said you were with wasn't dating anyone either."

"Who was that?" T.P. asked without thinking.

The closest girls he could think of that anyone could percieve him to be romantically involved with were Taino and the Supreme Kai of Time, yet for each one of them, he found it to not make sense.

For Taino it'd be more reasonable to think she was dating Pima, what with him going on about how he'd give his life for her, which kind of happened after the whole thing with Dumplin.

For the Supreme Kai of Time, it'd be most reasonable to say she was most likely dating Trunks, if rumors said anything about how people viewed the duo, though T.P. would never say this to Trunks' face, especially not now.

When Trunks answered his question, T.P. lost the ability to breathe.

Trunks simply lifted a finger, then pointed to his own chest, poking himself there so that T.P. would get the message.

His mind froze over when he realized what this meant.

"You... you're kidding, right?" T.P. gave a forced and nervous chuckle.

Trunks shook his head.

The two stared at each other for a moment.

Then T.P. fell on his knees, his sense of balance leaving him.

"But... I'm not... we're not..."

"I know." Trunks kneeled down before T.P., placing a hand on his shoulder, "I know we aren't gay, but that's what people think of us."

"But Trunks... _I don't wanna be gay_!" T.P. cried.

Trunks embraced his partner, patting him on the back, shushing him while rocking him back and forth, "It'll be okay. We'll get through this together."

A flash of light caught both men's attention, and they looked up to find Taino there, a digital camera in her hands.

"Now I know that Trunks is the pitcher."

"The what?" Both men said in unison.

"You don't need to know." Taino turned, walking out of the Time Vault.

The men watched the exit for a long time, then pulled away from one another, slowly standing back up onto their feet.

Trunks coughed into his fist, "Anyways..."

"Let's forget we ever talked about that meeting." T.P. said, eyes looking tired.

"Agreed." Trunks looked as T.P. walked away.

On his way up the steps however, T.P. stopped, then looked back to Trunks, his eyes serious again, "Trunks, are you really sure we need to keep everything the same?"

"As much as possible, yes."

"Well, if that's really the case, then we may need to go back to that timeline." T.P. started walking back down towards Trunks side, "Because if I'm guessing right, then the timeline I just fixed was yours."

"Yes, it is," T.P. walked past Trunks as he said this, the purple haired man looking back at him as he opened the scroll, "What about it?"

Trunks walked closely behind his partner, who channeled his energy through the Scroll of Eternity, information speeding through his mind as fluidly as water, him slowing the energy when he found the place he was looking for.

As Trunks looked at the Scroll's image, he realized what T.P. had wanted him to see.

The Scroll revealed to them the image of Trunks, him looking to be in his early teens then, with Gohan, who could easily be seen to be a fully grown man, as they looked at Android 17 and 18, them standing in the middle of an amusement park.

Something immediately struck Trunks as being off about what he saw however.

Whenever he'd thought of the two androids, he instinctively could see himself trying to fight them. This was especially the case for that day, as Trunks realized that the Scroll was showing the day Gohan had lost his arms in his fight against the androids.

In the Scroll, this was anything but the case.

_As the two duos looked at each other, they regarded each other, not with anger, or in the androids' cases, annoyance, but in a friendly manner, Gohan walking forward and shaking #17's hand, acknowledging #18 with a nod, before Gohan turned to look back at Trunks, who looked at the spectacle awkwardly, hands pushed in his pockets._

_Gohan immediately went about introducing the androids to Trunks, who, as was rather normal for the younger of the two, tried to speak with the androids but did so in a somewhat nervous manner, another woman around Gohan's age walking behind him and patting the warrior on his back, her having a long black braid of hair and deep blue eyes, notifying Gohan of her return._

_When Gohan saw her, his face brightened up with a smile, him introducing the androids to the woman, telling them that her name was Videl, the androids recieving Videl's introduction well._

_When the introductions ended, the group of five walked away from the meeting place, walking through a crowd of people that kept them from reaching the party set up for them, Bulma, Piccolo, Krillin, Yamcha, Tien, Chiaotzu, Chi-Chi, and the Ox King all waiting for them, some still giving the androids a slightly less than friendly look but not letting their presence ruin their mood in its entirety, the party at the amusement park going rather well._

As Trunks looked at this event unfold before him, he almost couldn't believe his eyes.

He wasn't sure if there were words that could possibly ever hope to express just how strange the sight he'd just seen was.

The androids of his timeline were invited to a party? And they weren't killing anyone?

Trunks wondered what could have transpired for this type of change to happen.

All of his friends and family were alive and well, with Trunks only assuming his father was fine due to his strong anti-social nature keeping him away from the party itself.

"I don't want to make any assumptions here, but this never happened in the timeline you're from, right?" T.P. had been looking at Trunks, and broken from his lapse from reality, Trunks snapped his gaze forward before rubbing the back of his head.

"No. Something like this should be impossible in my timeline."

Pondering what could've happened, Trunks grasped his chin in thought, his right elbow pressing into his left hand's palm.

"I guess from the fact that you don't remember any of that that this didn't happen at all before."

"No, not at all."

"Should we change it?"

Giving a look at the image of the people inside, Trunks gave it a hard moment of thought.

He wasn't supposed to condone any changes to history, he was simply supposed to keep everything as close to the original timeline as possible.

Yet looking at the image before him made him wonder if that were such a good idea.

If things remained the way they were in this timeline from the way T.P. had left it, then there'd be a much better timeline as the days passed.

Trunks narrowed his eyes a moment, then closed them, crossing his arms, "We shouldn't." Trunks answered his partner's question.

"Really?" T.P. asked, glancing at Trunks curiously.

"Yes. Our job is to fix timelines so that they won't be distorted from their original counterparts." Trunks opened his eyes, pointing at the image the Scroll showed, "While this is a distortion of a kind to history as well, this is something we can learn from. It'd be best if we left this timeline as is and studied the events that caused the androids to stop trying to kill humanity." He looked up at T.P., "Would you mind helping me?"

"How?"

"I want you to make a report of the androids' actions and events leading up to this point, so I can compare it to how things were when they were still evil in the original timeline. Could you do that for me?"

Trunks' tone and expression as he asked the question surprised T.P.

They weren't the same as when he gave an order. Instead, they were in a state that reflected that this was a genuine request.

T.P. could deny it if he so chose to.

Despite this, T.P. looked back at the Scroll, speaking a bit timidly, "I think I can."

"That doesn't sound very convincing." Trunks said bluntly.

T.P. had realized this already, and said in a firmer voice, "I'll do my best to."

Trunks smiled.

"Thanks T.P. Try to have it ready for me by tomorrow." Trunks started walking towards the stairs, "I'm going to bed for now."

"Alright, sleep well." T.P. called after Trunks.


	6. Mission (Part 1)

Heavy breathing filled the room, the smell of sweat tinging it.

Bullets of sweat covered Trunks' face, him on all fours as he tried to regain his lost breath, his eyes clenched tightly.

His trench coat was held up by a hanger behind him, leaving him in the black baggy pants and tank top he often wore when he was about to go to sleep.

Trunks wiped his sweat off of his forehead with the palm of his right hand, it drenched already from how often he sweat from his previous attempts, before Trunks pushed his left hand against his knee, applying pressure to it in order to force himself to get back up.

As he rose back up to his feet again, Trunks took a few more moments to breathe, then forced himself to stop after taking one last deep breath, holding it in and opening his eyes, his hands reaching out as though reaching out for a person's hand in a moment of group prayer, him concentrating strongly.

Two shapes of light that resembled Trunks completely appeared on either side of him, them becoming clones of him.

Trunks held his breath still as he concentrated further, another two clones forming beside the first two, the four clones joining hands with the original.

Concentrating on the last space, Trunks concentrated again, this time with a wave of accomplishment flowing through his nerves, as a fifth clone appeared opposite of the original.

With the five clones joining hands with him, Trunks released his sigh, telling himself to remain calm.

He needed to stay that way if this was to work, he thought.

Trunks breathed in slowly through his nose, then quickly through his mouth, repeating this action as he ignored how clammy his hands had become.

With all of his power divided into six beings, Trunks willed each one to release their power and drive it into him, the original.

Though he sensed the power of the clone opposite of him channeling itself towards Trunks, the man had already braced himself for the immense vertigo of trying to make the clone's energy channel itself towards him.

Using the Multi-Form technique was useful when one's power was great enough that when divided it'd still be enough to deal damage to their opponent, but the technique itself was a double edged sword.

For Trunks, he felt as though his consciousness had been split into six different perspectives. Six people shared the exact same mind when Trunks used the technique like this.

He'd seen many books, movies, or stories in general in the science fiction genre, doing this in his spare time, where a singular machine was the main control center for a massive network, which usually consisted of robots, and Trunks now found himself, to his own ironic bemusement, sympathizing with the machines in those stories, despite his deeply rooted hatred for the androids in his timeline, his understanding of the fact that said machines were all fictional only adding to this feeling.

Trunks was quickly becoming overwhelmed just by being the "control center" for the clones that made a circle around him, with each and every one having a different view on things, and the thought of doing so for an entire network of individual beings scared him senseless.

The most common cliche he knew of in such stories involved machines gaining an Artificial Intelligence and believing themselves to be superior to humans in every way.

Now that he saw things, at least halfway, through the machine's perspective, Trunks would never believe just how right those machines were about humanity and themselves.

It didn't matter that he had easily become the valedictorian of his college class during the few years he'd been attending before entering the Time Nest for the first time, nor did it help that he was currently being put through the stress of basically managing a steadily rising number of people on how to fix an even quicker rising number of distorted timelines.

When a person used the Multi-Form technique, with a strong purpose in mind shared by all clones and the original, then the ability was useful for, if nothing else, a person having a companion to aid them of the same strength as you.

When a person, like Trunks, used the Multi-Form technique while making all of his clones do seperate things one at a time, the technique was much more disorienting than helpful.

So lost in his thoughts, Trunks felt his energy surge back up dramatically, reaching the point it usually would be near, opening his eyes to find that his five clones had disappeared.

The young man whipped his hands up in the air in exasperation, then turned away from the wall he was facing, cursing himself for his negligence.

Trunks was about to try again, but then realized that he'd just finished his 15th attempt.

Realizing he'd met the limit of the number of attempts he'd allowed for himself to make for creating another method of becoming a Super Saiyan God, Trunks sighed, wiping his sweaty face again.

This being the third day in a row that he'd been doing this, Trunks knew he was barely making any progress in his goal.

If he were honest with himself, he was only learning more about the Multi-Form technique as compared to how to utilize it to create a Super Saiyan God.

If he remembered correctly, five Saiyans needed to join hands in a type of circle with a sixth Saiyan, who would become the Super Saiyan God itself, with the five Saiyans channeling energy into the sixth.

With the Multi-Form technique, Trunks hoped to find a way to make a more productive method of becoming a Super Saiyan God that didn't cause a person to go through the task of finding six other righteous hearted Saiyans.

Despite his good intentions behind putting himself through this, with the multiple attempts that came before the last one coming remarkably close to getting the job done, Trunks also had a few ulterior motives for doing this.

One such motive, or rather, the only real ulterior motive, that Trunks had was the fact that he wanted to avoid getting possessed again at any point in time by a force like Demigra.

Based on speculations he could make, people who had attained the Super Saiyan God form were immune to magic, or at least possession magic.

Remembering how he'd felt when he'd been possessed by the demon god, a chill ran through Trunks' spine.

He never wanted to go through that again, he thought to himself.

It was bad enough watching members of the Time Patrol getting possessed one by one by Demigra's magic, all of them turning on him and the Supreme Kai of Time as they tried to protect Toki-Toki, with Trunks having to single handedly defeat all of them to keep this from happening, him not having T.P.'s assistance due to him being preoccupied with fighting Kid Buu, Perfect Cell and Frieza.

The memory of that day made the man sigh heavily, him having walked to grasp his towel, taking it and wiping his face as he thought to himself about the past situation.

In hindsight, Demigra may have been doing everything he could to weaken any opposition to him getting Toki-Toki, Trunks realized.

Because regardless of what they did, the Time Patrollers would be letting Demigra get Toki-Toki by not fighting those he possessed, with their numbers dwindling for every possessed member that had been defeated.

Either way, it'd be a lose-lose situation for everyone except Demigra.

"Which was what he was going for." Trunks said to himself after he lowered the towel from his face.

Having said this to himself, Trunks forced a smile to come onto his face.

He had to think of the good things, he told himself.

As a result of that incident, after T.P. had killed Demigra, the Taino Force had been assembled.

Trunks knew this to be a less than satisfactory thing to supplement with the horrid event that was Demigra getting unsealed, but then he decided to think about the good things that had happened in extension to this.

Trunks finally stopped getting private hints from people about how Pima was likely to be suicidal, as well as him gradually seeing that the formal requests for people to fight Iaas, a person who was infamous for his bad attitude, came at a much slower rate after him joining the Taino Force.

Trunks made the conscious decision to believe it was because the Clasman had simply become less of a prick since joining that people had stopped respectfully asking the de-facto leader of the Time Patrol to beat said Clansman up, him not entertaining the faintest belief in any other possibility.

At least those two things had come about, Trunks thought with a smile that felt a bit less forced to him after thinking of this, only for it to drop in realization.

Speaking of the Taino Force...

Trunks reflexively turned to his desk, walking towards it and finding that his computer wasn't there.

Realizing this, the man shrugged his shoulders to himself.

He didn't necessarily need the computer at that moment anyways.

His hands searched the surface of the desk, it not illuminated by the lamp he had from it not being on in the first place, his fingers searching for the microchip that made up the only remaining hope of getting the only robotic member of the Taino Force, Thirith, to come back to "life" so to speak.

His fingers ran lightly against the forceful cuts he'd made in it with the pen he used when in the process of writing in his diary, Trunks having a vivid memory of having a great deal of frustration built up inside that drove him to simply start scraping his frustrations into his desk, which left a permanent scar on it that Trunks felt a strange satisfaction from remembering.

Tracing over a few scars in the wooden surface of the desk, Trunks found the microchip he was looking for and smiled, picking it up and walking out of his room.

It'd be best if he went about making Thirith a new body as soon as possible, so Taino wouldn't cry her eyes out over him not being alive anymore.

In a technical sense, Thirith was better described as a robot that was in a scarily deep sleep where he had no dreams rather than being dead.

Trunks considered comparing Thirith's current state to that of a coma, but realized that people could still be awake in that situation and could take information, but just couldn't respond, which was not the case for Thirith.

If Trunks found the blueprints he'd made for when he created Thirith, then it'd be a cinch for him to create a new body for the robot, if he had the right tools.

Once again deep in his thoughts, the Supreme Kai of Time's voice calling out to him broke him from them, "Hey Trunks, what're you doing up this late?"

Trunks looked at the short goddess, who sat a circular shaped table, holding a journal and pen in her hands, and lifted the microchip for Thirith in his hand up, "I just remembered that I need to make Thirith a new body. So I'm trying to do that now while I have some free time."

"Are you sure you need to do it now?" The Supreme Kai of Time leaned back in her chair, "It's already been a long day for you as it is, hasn't it?"

Trunks sighed heavily.

"Yes, you're right about that." Trunks said, the memories of the past eighteen hours filling him with dread.

He had tried leaving the Time Nest without the Supreme Kai of Time's permission with the excuse of sick leave, could only get a hasty breakfast in with his mother before he was forced by the goddess to return to the Time Nest, could barely get a decent goodbye in with his mother before this happened, returned to find that T.P. had gone into a timeline with the intention to fix it with new Time Patrol candidates, but was only making matters worse, had realized that Mira was still alive and that Towa didn't need him to time travel, had been beaten senseless by the evil twin brother of Majin Buu, Dumplin, had kept getting punched in the face into a worm hole by a man with a creepy aura, tried to warn Dumplin about eating the Supreme Kai of Time's cooking only to be punched in the face again, had gone into the Time Vault to find that another time distortion had taken place after waking up, and had been caught in the act of comforting his alleged "lover" T.P.

Today had been a long day indeed.

"I'd rather get this done so Taino won't worry." Trunks said, scratching his head tiredly.

When he'd told her that there'd be a chance of fixing Thirith, Trunks could remember Taino's once deadened eyes filling themselves with hope, with her instantly begging him to do so as quickly as possible.

The second Trunks agreed to doing just that, Taino brightened up so much with the smile she had that, in the present, Trunks felt guilty for having momentarily forgotten to fix Thirith.

For Taino to hug him as tightly as she had, all while having enough hope within her smile to put a smiling baby to shame, thanking him as earnestly as she had, Trunks felt the smile coming onto his face despite his current exhaustion.

"You look pretty happy about doing that." The Supreme Kai of Time noted audibly.

"I am," Trunks didn't try to mask his emotions, smiling up at her, "The fact that I can do something to help someone without needing someone's help feels pretty good."

The Supreme Kai of Time nodded, returning his smile.

"Besides, I don't want to disappoint Taino," Trunks brought his free hand to his hip, "I'd rather see her be happy like she usually is," he kept speaking as Taino's tear stained face came into his mind, her looking calm as compared to happy, her voice and expression telling all who heard it of an emotion similar to mourning a loved one's death, "She looks a lot prettier when she's happy than when she's sad, doesn't she?"

He had gained a far-away look as his smile remained.

The Supreme Kai of Time stared at him for a moment, her smile gone, "Trunks?"

"Yes?" Trunks looked at her, his smile dropping as he looked at the Supreme Kai of Time's expression.

"You wouldn't be thinking of dating Taino, would you?"

Trunks' eyes widened, but then he laughed her words off, "No way, I don't even like her in that sort of way."

"I guess you like younger woman after all." The Supreme Kai of Time said, turning away from him.

Trunks stared in confusion at her.

Had she not listened to what he'd just said?

"Supreme Kai of Time?"

"Yes?" She still hadn't turned to look at him.

"I just said that I don't see Taino in that way." Trunks said, trying to make sure she had understood what he'd said.

"I know. I heard you the first time."

There was disdain in her voice now.

"Why did you say I like younger women then?"

Trunks felt great confusion in that moment.

Sure, Taino was younger than him, but if the Supreme Kai of Time knew that he didn't like Taino in a romantic sense, then why was she saying something about him liking younger girls to begin with?

As though reading his mind, the Supreme Kai of Time answered.

"Because whenever guys say something like that, it usually ends up being a lie."

"Why would I lie about something like that?"

"'Cause you're a guy."

Trunks immediately felt offense at these words, especially at how nonchalantly they came out, as though this was an actual fact.

"Not all guys lie about something like that you know."

"Yes they do."

"No they don't."

"Name three people who don't then." She still didn't turn to face him.

"Goku, my father, Gohan." Trunks said without thinking.

Silence came between them for a moment.

"... Three more." The Supreme Kai of Time said.

"Goten, Other Me, Tien."

Silence.

"... Three more."

"The Ox King, Chiaotzu, Android 17."

Silence again.

"... Three more."

"Android 16, Piccolo, Demigra."

The Supreme Kai of Time stood up from her chair, pointing accusingly at Trunks, "Those three don't even have business to do that kind of thing to begin with!"

Despite the clear message that Trunks had more or less cheated in giving the Supreme Kai of Time that sort of response, with #16 being a genuine android without a known sexual preference, Piccolo being a part of genderless race, and Demigra seeming to have no interest in anything except for controlling people, he couldn't help snickering lightly at her response, the trace of a smile on the Supreme Kai of Time's face not helping at all.

"Quit laughing!" The trace of laughter in her voice only made Trunks laugh harder.

"I'm sorry," Trunks said, sounding anything but, holding a hand over his mouth, "I just couldn't help wondering why you wanted me to name all those guys."

The Supreme Kai of Time crossed her arms, looking away from him, "I was just trying to prove my point."

"Guys don't always lie about that sort of thing." Trunks reiterated, the smile not leaving his face.

She sighed, "I know. It's just hard not to get jealous when a nice-looking guy who never shows how he feels suddenly says a girl's pretty when he's known another girl for a month longer and hasn't ever said anything about how she looks."

With understanding flickering on his face, Trunks said with a nonchalant expression, "But you shouldn't worry about that. You're pretty cute too."

His words, though prompted to existence, had a great deal of sincerity inside them.

Despite this, Trunks saw the Supreme Kai of Time react like he half-expected, or in this case, quarter-expected.

She looked at him, her mood not uplifted at all by his compliment, very likely due to him saying something about her looks only when she'd said something about his lacking in doing so, her even glaring somewhat.

What made his half-expectancy turn into "quarter-expectancy" however was her verbal response.

"I'm only cute? Not pretty?"

The response Trunks expected was for her to go on about how the compliment meant nothing because she had called him out on it, so this made him become confused again.

With a somewhat surprised look, Trunks said, "Well, no, that's not what I meant. I just meant that you're more cute than pretty."

Though his words were sincere, the bluntness seemed to make the Supreme Kai of Time sulk somewhat.

Wondering what was the matter, Trunks spoke, "Supreme Kai of Time? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing. I accept it. I have no charm as a woman." Even her posture as she walked back to her seat seemed to sulk, if that was possible, her head hung a bit low.

"Hey, I never said anything like that." Trunks said this, him not feeling pity for the girl in front of him, crossing his arms, his smile coming back in a friendly manner, "Besides, if I compared things like the charm or beauty someone had with yours, it wouldn't be very fair anymore, would it? With you being a goddess and all."

Though he was, again, sincere in his words, Trunks had been joking somewhat when he basically said her being a goddess made her better than anyone else in the beauty department.

The Supreme Kai of Time didn't seem to notice this however, the sulk coming out of her body language, her turning to look back at Trunks curiously, "You mean that?"

"Of course."

As quickly as the sulk left, it returned.

"So you're saying that if I weren't a goddess, I wouldn't be..."

As she trailed off, Trunks spoke bluntly.

"No, I don't mean you'd stop being beautiful." He said in a flat tone, "I'm just saying you being the way you are is fitting for a goddess."

The meaning behind his words being indirect, the Supreme Kai of Time stared a bit at him, her seeming to be thinking for a moment, before she smiled happily.

She lifted a finger and wagged it playfully, turning to face away from him again as she spoke, "Nice try, but flattery won't get you anywhere."

"I wasn't flattering you, but okay." Trunks shrugged.

He started walking away from the Supreme Kai of Time, intent on going to his lab to find the blueprints for Thirith, only to stop in his tracks, glancing back at the Supreme Kai of Time, "Hey, Supreme Kai of Time?"

The smile was still on her face as she looked back at him, "Yes Trunks?"

"Thank you."

"What for?"

"You made me laugh. I needed that." Trunks responded, walking away then, towards his lab.

It was always good to end the day in a happy way, Trunks thought.

Without waiting for a reply, he entered the room, the Supreme Kai of Time smiling at the back of his head before sitting in her chair again.

"I'm glad I could help." The Supreme Kai of Time replied, closing her eyes lightly, before she smelled a stench of blood.

Opening her eyes at this, the Supreme Kai of Time jumped in her seat when she saw Dumplin standing there, making a kissy looking face that somehow, despite how ridiculous it looked, terrified a part deep inside of her.

"I thought you were gonna kiss and make up."

"Huh?"

Dumplin disappeared into thin air with a "pop" sound.

"Huh?!" The Supreme Kai of Time looked around quickly, eyes wandering around the room to look for the gray Majin.

* * *

Trunks finished recreating Thirith a body in a few minutes time, entering the microchip inside of him.

When he finished, Trunks tenderly placed the robot on the charger for it, sighing softly.

Glancing at the blue prints, Trunks recalled how Thirith was never created for combat purposes to begin with.

Staring at the blue prints for a long moment, Trunks looked back at Thirith again, who was still in sleep mode then.

It'd be best if he managed to avoid having to fix Thirith every time he got broken, he thought to himself.

He needed to remake Thirith so that he wouldn't break as easily, he decided.

But he'd have to do it later, after he'd had a good night's sleep.

Trunks pushed his clenched fists up into the air, stretching his arms out, his joints cracking themselves as they straightened.

He couldn't do very good work when his brain wasn't functional.

Thinking this, Trunks stood up, walking out of his lab, bidding the Supreme Kai of Time good night as he passed by her, her having a wary gaze at her surroundings even as she said good night in response.

* * *

The next day would find T.P. walking inside of the Time Nest, Trunks' laptop held tenderly in his hands, him reaching the Supreme Kai of Time's house and pushing past the curtain door, gazing into the interior of the building he'd grown used to.

The smell of food greeted him, and T.P. smiled a bit, the aroma that entered his nostrils making him drool somewhat.

It was time for breakfast at that moment, and hearing the sizzling of bacon and the soft hiss of eggs, coupled with the sound of chopping that created an aroma that wafted into T.P.'s nostrils as well, making his eyes forcibly tear up, the young man felt himself smile in a deeper fashion, realizing he'd get to eat Trunks' omelet dish.

It didn't take a genius to know when Trunks was cooking and when he wasn't, for that could only mean that the Supreme Kai of Time would be cooking.

Though he couldn't sense energy, if he could, then T.P. was quite certain he'd be able to sense the innocently sinister aura of the time goddess' cooking.

And even in the event that he wouldn't sense it, the Supreme Kai of Time was sitting a few feet beside him at the table.

"Morning." T.P. greeted with a smile, waving lightly at the girl.

"Morning." The Supreme Kai of Time raised a hand to show she had acknowledged his presence, smiling.

Seeing the pen in her raised hand, along with the journal sitting in front of her on the table, it open, T.P. asked the obvious question, "Writing in your diary again?"

"Yup."

"You seem to like writing in that thing nowadays." T.P. commented, his eyes subconsciously looking at the text she had written, only for her to notice and offhandedly pull it out of his sight.

"I do enjoy it. It's fun." The Supreme Kai of Time kicked her right foot up, then let it fall, doing the same to her other foot when the right one was halfway to reaching its starting point, kicking her right foot back as her left moved forward, her swinging her legs happily.

"I'm happy to hear that." T.P. smiled, then peaked inside of the kitchen, seeing Trunks there, "Morning Trunks!"

Trunks turned to face away from the onions he was cooking, and seeing his partner there, the man's face brightened greatly, despite the tears that formed strongly in his eyes, him only wearing baggy pants and his sturdy black tank top.

"Hey T.P.!"

"Are you making omelets?" T.P. asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, I have most of them finished right now."

Trunks glanced at the large pile of pie shaped omelets there, T.P. swallowing the drool that strengthened at the sight of them.

Saiyans had always been known for their large appetite, and Trunks, as well as, needless to say, T.P., were of no exception to this.

"Do you need help with anything before we eat?"

"If you can, find Dumplin." Trunks replied, his smile gradually dropping in its entirety at the thought of the Majin.

"Really? Why?" T.P. asked.

"He went into the Time Vault and never came back last night. He said he had to fix something in one timeline but didn't say what."

"And you just let him?"

"You know I didn't." Trunks replied in a monotone, "When I told him not to go, he punched me in the face. "_No one tells the Dump Truck what to do_," he said."

Him glaring down at the onions now, T.P. couldn't help but notice that the cut marks Trunks' knife left on the cutting board were more evident with each stroke of his hand.

T.P. smiled forcibly, nervously chuckling a bit as he felt the malevolent aura emitting from Trunks a moment later.

"It'll be okay Trunks. He'll turn up eventually." He said in as reassuring a voice as he could.

Trunks glanced at him, him not cutting anymore, his calm expression only marred by the intensity of the fury behind his eyes, T.P. feeling very off-put at this, but smiling still, scratching his head.

Trunks closed his eyes, then breathed in deeply but slowly in through his nose, then blew it out with a quick blow of air, the malevolent aura seeming to dissipate immediately.

"You're right. I should wait a bit." Trunks said, more to himself than to his partner, his eyes opened only half as much as they usually were as he stared down at the chopped up onions, him doing speedy cuts again and pouring it inside of the eggs, taking the bacon off of the pan and cutting them up as well, before finally pouring it all out into the eggs as well.

After a moment of trying to add more cheese to the omelet, Trunks realized T.P. was still looking at him, and he looked at him again, "What's wrong?"

"You really hate that guy, don't you?"

"Yes."

The answer came out so bluntly that it shocked T.P., Trunks tearing the squared cheese slices into different pieces before throwing them into the eggs.

"Why? It's only been a day, if that."

"He single handedly destroyed an entire universe, beat the crap out of all of us to "test his strength"," Trunks seemed to tear the cheese up in correspondence to the reasons he gave, tearing off a piece and chucking it rather harshly into the eggs before giving a new reason, him doing this subconsciously no less, "Nearly killed four of us, one of which was you, made Taino have to go commando because he thought it'd be better to see her in the nude," three pieces of the cheese were thrown inside the pan as he gave this reason, "Did most of those things under the excuse of wanting to join the Time Patrol, and yet still punches me so hard my body makes a hole in the Time Vault and made the Supreme Kai of Time have to strain herself for the fifth time in the past couple of days to get everything back to normal."

Trunks had already run out of cheese to throw in the pan, and despite him handling the contents of the omelet with care, T.P. could see his arms flexing themselves aggressively at the occurrences of the day before.

"Trunks?"

He glanced at T.P. again, "Yeah?"

"Do you ever write this stuff down in your diary?"

Trunks looked into the golden yellow of the eggs for a moment, then shook him head.

"Isn't that kind of the point of having a diary? To put all the good and bad things that happened in your day in written form?"

Trunks sighed, but nodded, bringing a hand up to his forehead, "You're right."

"You don't have to worry about me Trunks!" The Supreme Kai of Time yelled into the kitchen behind T.P., "It wasn't that hard to fix the damage done to the Time Vault!"

"Even so!" Trunks yelled back at her, "You have enough problems when it comes to minimizing the damage we cause in a timeline. I don't want you to overwork yourself!"

"Huh?" T.P. tilted his head in confusion, "She does what?"

Trunks looked at T.P. in surprise, "You mean you never noticed?"

"Noticed what?"

"How whenever you use some really destructive beam or something that trails across the ground it'll leave a trail for a couple of seconds before covering itself up like nothing ever happened?"

"That was all you?" T.P. looked at the reddish-haired goddess behind him.

"Yup, all me." The Supreme Kai of Time pointed a thumb at herself, eyes closed.

"Huh." T.P. looked down towards the ground, "And here I was thinking that Earth and Namek were planets that had soil that closed itself like a cut."

Both Trunks and the Supreme Kai of Time stared at him.

"What? How was I supposed to know that that wasn't the case?"

"Soil doesn't just fix itself like that T.P." Trunks said, his stare still strong, "I thought you would've realized that they can't do that after seeing both planets get blown up."

"That's only because they killed the planets."

"What?" The Supreme Kai of Time seemed like she wanted to laugh, but couldn't find herself able to do it.

"You know, Frieza and Buu had those planet killing balls in their hands and they used it on the planet they were on, and those planets blew up because they died." He looked between the two, seeing them still staring, "Right?"

"No." Trunks' omelet had finished cooking already, and to avoid burning it, he pulled the omelet off of the burner, "They just destroyed the planet by throwing an attack that was like a bomb inside of its core, which caused it to blow up."

"Oh." T.P. felt a bit dumb then, "I guess I just never knew that."

"How could you not?" Trunks glanced over at him.

T.P. shrugged.

As he asked the question, Trunks realized he'd never asked it before, much less knew the answer at any point in time, "How old are you T.P.?"

T.P. looked a bit stumped then.

"Don't tell me you don't know how old you are."

"Well..." T.P. scratched the side of his head with his finger, "I don't really remember anything that's happened to me before I came here. So I can't even guess how old I am."

Trunks stared at him for a long time, eyes widened.

His partner had amnesia, he realized.

His partner had had amnesia, and had never once said anything about it.

As he stared at the awkwardly standing T.P., Trunks felt guilt rise within him.

He had never even thought to ask.

A whole month, and he had never asked once who he was.

That fact alone didn't account for his entire bout of guilt however.

What caused the large percentage of his guilt to exist was the fact that Trunks hadn't even bothered to ask T.P. what his name was.

Over and over and over again, he had just called him "Time Patroller," at first as a means of saying T.P. had become a member of the Time Patrol Squad, with this over time becoming his nickname.

Only a couple of days ago did T.P. ever even bring up the fact that he wanted a different name, them settling on T.P.

As he thought of these things, Trunks felt, for lack of a better term, like an asshole.

He had been working with T.P. for an entire month, and still hadn't even bothered to ask his name?

What an awful thing, he thought to himself, for him to order someone around to put their neck on the line to clean up someone else's mess, with Trunks never even bothering to ask, let alone remember, his partner's name.

T.P. laughed sheepishly at the looks Trunks and the Supreme Kai of Time gave him, "Sorry if I shouldn't have stayed quiet. I guess it just never occurred to me to say something."

"How could you _not _have said something?!" The Supreme Kai of Time yelled, her exasperation coming out as anger, her slamming her palms flat on the table for emphasis, "If you had amnesia, you should have said something!"

"How do you tell a person you have amnesia?" T.P. asked curiously.

"Oh, I don't know! Maybe asking someone what your name..." A look of realization came across the Supreme Kai of Time's face, "... is..."

She stared at T.P, before she grasped at her head, eyes widened, "Oh my God!" She looked at her assistant, "Trunks! What kind of awful people are we?!"

"I don't know!" Trunks replied with a self-loathing shout, him banging his forehead against the refrigerator, bellowing curses that were all aimed at himself, "How could I be such an insensitive jackass?! Why did I never _once _think to ask about his _freaking name_?! How can anyone possibly screw that sort of thing up?! Especially me! How could I possibly be so awful as to do that to someone?!"

T.P. grasped Trunks' scalp with his right hand and applied a large deal a pressure on it to force it to stop moving, him staring at Trunks' battered face, "Calm down, it's nothing to fret over."

Trunks had his eyes closed tightly, and he looked down, "I'm sorry T.P. I wish I had known sooner..."

"Hey, it's okay." T.P. smiled, "These things happen Trunks."

Trunks opened his eyes and shook his head at the man's words, "No. No they do not!"

"Either way," T.P.'s smile dropped, and he closed his eyes, "Quit beating yourself up about it Trunks. Your brain is too valuable for you to hurt it. Who else can we rely on to keep everything under control if you aren't at your best? The Supreme Kai of Time wouldn't be able to, and I certainly can't. We need you Trunks."

"Hey!" The Supreme Kai of Time yelled, "I can manage the Time Patrol!"

T.P. ignored her, "So will you stop hurting yourself over this? I'm sorry for not bringing this up before."

Trunks stared at his partner, then sighed, "Alright. I'm sorry for hurting myself then."

"Okay. All's forgiven."

T.P. hugged Trunks, Trunks hugging him back, them embracing for a moment.

"_Do you wanna__ kill a planet?_" A sing-song voice appeared next to them.

Trunks and T.P. both glanced towards the source of the sound, finding Dumplin singing into a tape recorder.

They stared a him for a moment, Dumplin still singing very loudly.

Then, in a split second, the embrace between the partners was broken, Trunks pointing a finger towards Dumplin in a very hostile gesture, "Where have you been?!"

"That's for me to know and you to feel guilty about."

"What?!" Trunks yelled, his anger mixing with confusion about the cliched phrase that Dumplin had changed for his own purposes.

T.P.'s reaction was opposite to Trunks', him looking more surpisedly curious than confused.

"Where did you get a tape recorder from?" T.P. asked quizzically.

"You wouldn't BELIEVE how cheap this thing was." Dumplin turned to look at him with an ear-wide grin.

"Really? How much was it?"

"I don't know. I stole it."

T.P. blinked.

"You stole...?"

"Yup!"

Trunks snatched the recorder out of Dumplin's hands, looking at it with a glare.

"You didn't even bother to take the price tag off." Trunks said in a monotone.

He closed his eyes, then breathed, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly.

"Is it safe for me to assume this was the only thing you did while you were inside of that timeline?" Trunks didn't look back at Dumplin as he asked this question.

"No, I just used that to record my thoughts while I was fixing everything."

Trunks felt the urge to ask what, but decided against this, simply pressing the rewind button on the tape recorder, silence filling the room as he waited for it to reach its beginning.

When it stopped rewinding, Trunks pushed the play button.

"_This is Dumplin, reporting in. My first attempt at fixing a timeline has been somewhat abysmal. In my defense, I blame that eggplant shaped Saiyan for letting me come here." _Trunks' eye twitched, _"In my first exploit, I attempted to fix a meeting between a really horny guy with a tail and some random race I probably absorbed in my universe. There was a guy there that might've set me off. His name was Raspberry. I ended up eating him alive because of how much his name reminded me of rasperry jam. Turns out that his blood being red doesn't make it taste anymore like it."_

There came a click, then another click, indicating that Dumplin had ended one recording and had started recording something else on the same tape.

_"I learned something today. I learned that blood tastes better than raspberry jam. I tried eating the horny guy too, but he, his father and his older brother started becoming hornier and hornier, until eventually there weren't any horns on them at all. I thought eating them would be easier, but it turns out that they became a lot quicker. I decided to eat another guy with a British accent, but then he started yelling something about "change" and did something to some other guy whose brain was purple and had black horns sticking out of them. I left right after but not before I watched them bury a bunch of bodies near a space ship. What was left of them at least."_

Again there was the click and one following it.

_"Hey, I just got back to the Time Nest place. That eggplant Saiyan was flirting with a red-headed midget. It was awesome. I tried teasing the midget about it afterwards, and her face was priceless."_

Click. Click.

_"It seems the tall red-headed Saiyan is being a dumbass again. It's not that he is a dumbass, he just acts like one. I thought he'd have the sense not to attack me after I knocked up everyone. Wait, is knocked up the phrase? No, I think it was something else... Oh yeah, I _fucked _everyone up, I didn't _knock _them up. Anyways, they seem to be having some philosophical discussion right now about killing planets." _A pause. _"I think I've finally found inspiration for my next album. The title of the first song will be this: "Do You Want to Kill a Planet?" What do you think? I might get that horny guy with a tail into this. He might be persuaded. I think it'll need to go a little like this..."_

Then came the sound of Dumplin singing, the sounds of conversation, and Trunks snatching it out of Dumplin's hand.

"What do you think of my field report?" Dumplin asked enthusiastically.

Silence answered him for a long time before Trunks spoke.

"This is your field report?"

"Yes."

"So you knocked me out..."

"Yes."

"Stole a Scroll from the Time Vault..."

"Yes."

"Went back in time to a place where the Ginyu Force was somehow involved with Frieza..."

"Yes."

"Ate a man alive..."

"Several men alive." Dumplin corrected.

"Came back here..."

"Yes."

"And then stalked us for the past few hours?"

"Depending on the definition of the word "stalk", yes."

"How could we have not sensed you all this time?" Trunks looked at Dumplin incredulously.

"Ah, I never explained it to you. See, my energy works differently from your energy. Your energy sounds like something you stick inside a hole and keep twisting until it does what you want. My energy is so much less boring."

"Boring? What energy are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about Mana."

"The heck is Mana?"

"It's something you don't understand. If you want me to break it down, it's magic. It lets me do Dumplin stuff."

Trunks' eyebrows pinched themselves.

"Stuff? What "stuff"? You've barely existed for a full 24 hours, you've barely done anything."

"I've done things. I've gone on interesting exploits."

"... While stalking and killing people." Trunks added flatly.

"VERY interesting exploits."

Trunks sighed.

"Look, you can't just go around timelines doing this sort of –" Pop. "– And he's gone again. Of course."

He sighed again, then brought a hand to his forehead, closing his eyes.

"… let's just eat everyone." Trunks walked to the omelets he had made, carrying them to the table, T.P. staring at the back of his head a moment before carrying omelets there as well.

* * *

The girl appeared in the plaza close to noontime, her crimson eyes gazing around herself, giving a confused look around herself.

Where was everyone?

She turned to her recently acquired Time Machine, pushed a button and returned it to its capsule state, and kneeled down and picked it up off the ground, holding it in her closed hand and looking around herself again.

She had been one of the twelve candidates for the Time Patrol that had been accepted, and the first thing that Trunks had assigned to them involved that the accepted candidates arrive here at noon.

Yet, among the people she could see walking under her beyond the bottom of the staircase, there was only one person down there that she could vaguely remember from yesterday.

Seeing the person she'd identified as Sky leaning against the foundation of the golden statue of a figure she believed was Hercule, him too looking around himself with crossed arms, Twil walked towards the edge of the stair case, her jumping over it in its entirety and landing lightly on the ground, in front of Sky, her feet making a low clap as she slammed into the ground.

Seeing her arrival, Sky looked up at her in curiosity, eyebrows raised as Twil looked up at the taller man.

"Hey." Twil said in a friendly tone, smiling.

"Hey." Sky responded, him looking at her as she joined him in leaning against the Hercule statue, her stuffing her hands into her pockets instead of crossing her arms like Sky had.

"Did we miss a memo or something?" Twil said after a moment, seeing that no one else was around.

"Memo for what?"

"For if we were still meeting here at twelve." Twil glanced at Sky, "I know telling how much time has passed through the Time Machine can be confusing," she glanced around herself and still found no familiar faces, "But you'd think that there'd at least be a few other people here."

Sky snorted somewhat, "You mean after we all got beat up by that Majin that came out of nowhere?"

At the memory of the event, Twil cringed.

"That'd explain it." She said slowly, turning her head to look at Sky, "Why are you here then? If I remember right, he attacked us more than anyone else."

Sky shrugged, "Your reason is as good as mine. I guess after the events of yesterday that I'm a bit curious about how this line of work will actually be like."

Twil smiled at that.

"Yeah." She bent herself down somewhat, then jumped back up, sitting on the foundation of the Hercule statue, looking down at Sky, "I doubt it'll be as… interesting as yesterday turned out to be though."

"I understand that logic," Sky returned her smile, glancing back at her, "But we'll never know until we try, right?"

"I understand that logic." Twil repeated Sky's words, "All I'm saying is try not to make that level of intensity your standard."

"I'll keep that in mind." Sky looked forward again, seeing if there were any more Time Patrol members that would arrive there.

He didn't have the chance to look for very long however, for Trunks had been walking towards them as soon as their conversation ended, him calling out to them, "Good afternoon to both of you."

Both the Saiyan and the Majin glanced over at Trunks, who smiled at them happily.

"I'm happy to see that you were still able to come here without me telling you about how time travel works here in the city."

Twil tilted her head slightly, "Shouldn't we know that already, since we're in the Time Patrol now?"

"Normally, yes, but under these circumstances, no," Trunks shook his head, "I usually have to explain to people that even with a Time Machine, you can't travel backwards or forwards in time here."

"What's the point of a Time Machine if you can't even time travel?" Sky asked.

"You can time travel, you just can't do it here."

"Why?"

"I don't really understand it myself," Trunks shrugged, "Whenever we use a Time Machine, you have to set it to have the right frequency for a certain timeline. Even if you have the exact date, time and everything set, if you don't have it set for the right frequency, then it could very well take you to a different timeline altogether. Since we don't have the frequency for this world, we can't time travel through it."

"Wait, this place is a different timeline from ours?"

Trunks looked at Twil, shrugging his shoulders, "I'd say it's more like an alternate dimension. We have things like night and day, but no one ever stays here for that long, so the only people who experience nighttime at all are the ones who live here."

"Are you one of those people?"

"Yes, though I wish that weren't the case sometimes." Trunks said jokingly.

He glanced up the stairs, searching for any signs of the other Time Patrol members, before looking back at the two present, "It's been a few minutes now, and since no one else has come yet, I think it's safe to assume this is the group I have to work with today. So let's start working, shall we?"

Without waiting for an answer, Trunks started walking away.

The two stared after him, before Sky lifted his hand up for Twil to take, her seeing the gesture and wrapping her hand around his, pushing herself off of Hercule's pedestal, landing on the ground a bit more stably as she grasped Sky's hand, her thanking him as their hands parted from one another, both walking behind Trunks.

"Hey," Twil whispered to Sky with a glance to the Saiyan, "Do you get the feeling he was trying to end the conversation a bit too quickly when I asked about him living here?"

Sky seemed to consider it, but only shrugged, "I can't say for sure. I get that feeling too, but seeing as how it isn't really our business where he lives, we shouldn't pry."

Twil scoffed.

"Yeah, right. When he probably knows exactly where we live, it's a little unfair that we're in the dark about HIS living arrangements."

"So those recruiter guys showed up at your door too?" Sky asked in slight surprise.

"Yeah, a whole group of five for me."

"Did they start doing these weird synchronized poses when they saw you?"

"Probably." Twil remembered the day before, when her mother called her down in the middle of the night.

As she came to the front door of her house, Twil saw Taino and four other people posing around her in possibly the strangest fashion she'd ever seen out of her window before she had even reached the door to see what her mother had called her down for.

"My mom wanted to know if my friends were on drugs or not, when they showed up late at night and started posing in front of her."

Sky laughed at that, then forced himself to stop quickly when he saw he was passing by Taino and her friends.

Both he and Twil didn't fail to notice how Taino was crying tears of joy as she hugged a robot tightly to her, as though it was a teddy bear of some type.

As they passed by them, they could even hear what she was saying, "Oh thank goodness you're all right! Don't make me worry like that again!"

"I'm sorry Taino," the robot said in its semi-hollow voice, "I didn't mean to worry you."

Taino pulled the robot away from herself, smiling happily at him, "It's fine, just try to avoid letting that happen in the future. You had me worried there."

It was then that Taino noticed Trunks walking by, gazing at her, her face brightening up, "Hey Trunks! Thanks again for fixing Thirith! You don't know how much it means to me to have him back!"

"It was no problem Taino." Trunks waved at her cheerfully.

It was then that he noticed something else.

The way Pima looked a bit downcast made Trunks walk to him, "Hey, Pima?"

"Hm? Yes Trunks?" Pima seemed a bit surprised at this.

"What were you thinking about?" Trunks asked worriedly, "You seemed troubled."

"It's nothing." Pima tried to deny, only for the other members of the Taino Force to look at him immediately.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Trunks asked again.

Pima seemed to think about it for a moment, then sighed.

"I wish I could've been stronger before." He admitted, "Maybe then Thirith wouldn't have..."

"Hey." Taino let go of Thirith, who floated in the air, and walked to Pima's side, wrapping an arm around his neck, "You can't blame yourself for this Pima."

"I know. I just wished I could be strong enough so I could feel like less of a dead weight."

"Pima," Ukatz spoke up now, Pima looking at him, "We already have enough dead weight with Iaas being here. Don't make it worse with your inferiority complex."

The Frieza Clansman whipped his gaze at the Namekian, it being a strong glare, Ukatz not caring in the slightest.

Pima sighed, the Saiyan's eyes looking down, "I know. I just wish I could fight better."

Trunks crossed his arms in thought, smiling jokingly, "And here I was thinking you were jealous of Thirith for all the affection Taino was giving him."

Pima blinked at that.

"Why would I be...?"

"Well, you know, you going all meat-shield for her sake and getting a hole blown through your stomach. I thought that since you suffered the most physical damage, sans Thirith, that you would've felt jealous about her showing this much affection at him being okay." Trunks looked away then, almost guiltily, "But then I guess that's what I get from hearing rumors about how you feel about Taino."

Even out of the corner of his eye, Trunks could see Pima freeze, becoming as rigid as a statue, his cheeks becoming a shade redder.

Well, at least his perception was half-right, Trunks thought to himself.

"Awww, I'm sorry Pima." Taino hugged Pima then, "I was scared when I saw how badly wounded you were. It was sweet of you to go so far for me."

"No problem..." Pima said with a low voice.

Trunks turned away from the two so they wouldn't see the smile that forced itself onto his face, him bringing a hand up so he wouldn't laugh at how quickly Pima's face had gone from pale to claret.

Despite this, Trunks spoke to Pima while not facing him, "Hey, Pima."

"Yes?"

"Do you think it sucks to be weaker than the average fighter around here? If you do, I just want to tell you you're wrong. When you have weak people as warriors, they usually end up being the most dangerous."

"Really?" Pima seemed surprised at this.

"Yes. I have something I need to do right now, but find me when you have time. I'll show you just how dangerous weak warriors can be if they use their powers correctly." Trunks walked forward, towards the two new Patrol members, "Until then."

Twil and Sky stared at Trunks as he walked past them, him smiling at them, "Sorry about that. Let's get to work."

He walked on towards the portal without listening for a verbal response, Sky sharing a look with Twil before they faced forwards, walking behind Trunks, watching as Trunks faded through the portal, them following unquestioningly behind him.

As they walked, Twil looked up at the giant hour glass structure that was in the middle of the area called the Time Plaza, passing by multiple bridges that allowed for walking to be possible to what looked like an altar for sacrifices.

"This place is called the Time Plaza." Trunks called behind himself, "If you manage to collect the dragon balls, then you can summon a dragon named Shenron."

"Shenron? The dragon balls exist here too?" Sky asked.

Trunks smiled, "Yes, even here."

Twil looked at the alter, her gaze curious.

The three walked towards a portal, Trunks acknowledging a muscley, bearded man with a nod, him nodding back, only for him to notice Twil and Sky.

"Are these two new recruits Trunks?"

"Yes, they're about to go on their first mission now." Trunks responded, stopping a putting a hand on his hip.

The man looked at them, then walked in front of them, "It's nice to meet you two. My name is Ziko."

Sky looked at his hand as he stretched it out, and he took it in his hand, shaking it firmly, "It's nice to meet you."

"Same to you." Ziko pulled his rough hand away from Sky's, reaching out for Twil's hand, which she took a bit graciously, them shaking hands as she repeated Sky's words when he'd shaken Ziko's hand.

As soon as their hands stopped shaking, Ziko pulled his hand away and reached into his pocket, "I know we've only just met, but I'd like to give these to you."

Both Majin and Saiyan looked at where Ziko's hand was, him pulling out two capsules, handing one to each of them.

"What are these?" Twil asked curiously.

"These are healing capsules. You never know when you might need them."

"They actually have capsules that heal people?" Sky looked down at the capsule in his hand incredulously, "Science really is advancing quickly."

"No, it's just that the Capsule Corp. has a few genuises at their disposal." Ziko glanced back at Trunks, who smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

"You mean you made this?" Twil asked Trunks.

"Yes. I remade water from some healing pods so they could be drinkable."

"Where did you get the water from?" Sky asked.

"I... _appropiated _it after I sent a few people to retrieve it from the Cold family's ships." Trunks said after a moment, not meeting Sky's eyes.

"You stole it?" Twil exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey, don't judge him." Ziko said sternly, hands on his hips, "He's stealing for a good cause!"

The embarassed look dissipated on Trunks' face, and he looked at the portal leading into the Time Nest.

"We should get going."

Without waiting for an answer, Trunks walked through the portal, the recruits staring at where he walked through for a moment before following, both thanking Ziko again for the capsules, and going through the portal.

Upon entering the Time Nest, both Sky and Twil saw that Trunks was already halfway down the path leading towards the Time Vault, and realizing this, both ran after him.

As though he sensed their presence when they caught up to him, Trunks spoke, "The timeline I'm going to assign you to is one involving the emperor Frieza."

"Who's that?" Twil asked behind him.

"He's an alien who once ruled a large deal of the universe when he was alive." Trunks didn't turn to look behind himself at her.

"How did he die?" Sky asked.

"I killed him." Trunks said this so matter-of-factly that it unnerved them.

Whether he realized this, the duo wasn't sure.

They glanced at each other, Sky deciding to ask the question they were both wondering, "Why?"

"He was about to kill all my friends and family. So I killed him." Trunks' answer was blunt.

"Couldn't you have tried reasoning with him?" Twil said uncertainly, her step coming out a bit slower than before, making her gain a bit more distance between her and the swordsman, her eyes now wary of the sword he had.

"I didn't really need to. It's not like he would've listened anyways."

"But still, did you really HAVE to kill him?" Sky asked, him too wary of the man in front of him. "Being an emperor, he must've had a lot to lose."

They had reached the steps of the Time Vault then.

"Maybe he did. But being the most forgiving person in the world can be more dangerous than anything if you're in this kind of world." Trunks crossed his arms, turning to them, "All I know for certain is that neither one of you would standing here if I hadn't killed him."

"How do you know for sure?" Twil asked.

She had a very mixed view of the man before her.

Though he seemed like a nice person, he had been willing to steal for his own purposes, and along with that, seemed to be ruthless enough to kill an emperor.

"What happened for this Frieza guy to want to kill your family? He must have had a reason." She asked, imploring him for answers.

"A friend of my mother, a man named Goku, beat him in a fight, and Frieza wanted revenge," Trunks narrowed his eyes at her, "Frieza came to planet Earth with the intention of killing Goku, even after he kept sparing him. Since Goku wasn't even on Earth when Frieza arrived, he decided to try killing everything off on Earth just to spite Goku. Since no one else was strong to face him and live at that time, _I killed him_."

Sky looked down somewhat at Goku's name.

Where had he heard that name before?

"Do you have any other questions for me?" Trunks asked, his voice icy, his expression showing he didn't like talking about the event.

"No." Twil shook her head after a moment. "No, I don't."

"Alright. Let's go then." Trunks turned to walk up the steps, Twil looking back up at him.

Had Trunks actually killed Frieza for something like that, she thought, or was he hiding something?

She knew very well of the effects political power often had on a person's actions, but if Frieza really had been an emperor, how could losing in a fight warrant wanting to kill off an entire race?

The girl couldn't understand such a mindset, even if it had come from a sore loser.

This refusal to accept such a minute reason for Frieza creating a vendetta against Goku made her wonder if Trunks, or his family for that matter, hadn't been completely in the right either.

Was he deliberately hiding something to make himself out to be less guilty?

Killing an emperor wasn't something a person didn't take to heart after all.

If the emperor died, then disorder would usually start spreading throughout the late ruler's empire, if her knowledge of history said anything about how such things went.

Had Trunks killed Frieza knowing this?

"Twil?" Sky's voice broke her from her thoughts, her looking to find that he was now standing halfway up the stairs, "Are you coming?"

Blinking in surprise at her realization, Twil spoke quickly, "Y-Yes, I'm coming!"

She ran up the stairs after Sky, Trunks having already walked inside of the Time Vault.

By the time Twil reached the inside of the Time Vault, Trunks had already reached the center counter of the building, waiting for them, a scroll open next to him.

Twil ran after Sky, who walked quickly down the steps, walking to Trunks as he reached the bottom.

When Twil reached Trunks a second later, he looked at the open scroll, "Though you've both been on a mission, this will your first official mission."

"What will we be doing?" Sky asked, a hand on his hip.

"Right now, it's best if I showed you."

Trunks turned to the scroll, picking it up on both ends and walking between Sky and Twil so they could both see, him channeling energy through it.

_A short bald man carried a little boy on his back, his hair having a bowl shaped hair cut, several large balls gathered together in a cluster._

_He breathed heavily, looking a bit in fear at the much taller man next to him, "Alright, all you need to do now is get your wish and you'll let us go, right?"_

_The man had a dull cyan color to his skin, his dark green hair tied into a ponytail, him swinging his head so it would swing to fall behind his shoulder, his arms crossed but his smile filled with joy._

_"Yes, I will let you go as soon as my business is done here." Zarbon said, looking towards the young Namekian who looked between them, him so visibly scared that he was shaking._

_Krillin glanced at Dende, then crouched down, setting the knocked out form of Gohan onto the ground, him still breathing despite his rolled back eyes._

_The short man walked to Dende's side, kneeling beside him so they'd be on eye level, "Dende," the Namekian, who watched Zarbon fearfully, snapped his gaze towards the Earthling, "I'm sorry that we dragged you into this. But everything will be fixed soon. We just need you to help us one more time."_

_Dende still looked very fearful, but nodded slowly, him visibly trying to steel his nerves, getting up slowly and raising his hands to the seven giant orange balls._

_"T-Takkaraputo POPPORUNGA!"_

_The dragon balls hummed with power, starting to glow brightly, before the sky, once bright, became dark, the dragon Porunga shooting up into the skies._

_"I am Porunga, dragon of dreams. Speak your three wishes."_

_Krillin turned to Dende, "Give him what he wants Dende."_

_Dende nodded hesitantly._

_"_Porunga, please give Zarbon eternal youth._"_

_Porunga's eyes glowed, then receded in light, "What is your second wish?"_

_Dende instinctively looked at Krillin._

_"You have to ask him to revive the Namekian Piccolo." Krillin said._

_Dende nodded, then turned to Porunga, "_Please revive the Namekian Piccolo._"_

_Again Porunga's eyes glowed, then receded, "What is your third wish?"_

_Once more, Dende looked at Krillin, who said, "Ask him to teleport everyone and every animal who isn't a soldier of Frieza off of Namek and to the planet Earth."_

_Dende interpreted this wish, and light covered them and Gohan, the corpses of the killed Namekians and even Namekian frogs having the same thing happening to them, before they disappeared._

_Porunga looked to Zarbon, "Farewell."_

_This was all he said before he burst into light, the dragon balls levitating a short amount before shooting up into the stratosphere, them not dispersing but simply moving vertically, their lights' disappearance seeming to make the darkness shatter, light returning to the world._

_Zarbon held his face, smiling from ear to ear._

_A chuckle formed in his throat, him letting it come out, the chuckle coming out as laughter, it growing and growing to maniacle level, Zarbon looking up at the sky as he laughed whole-heartedly._

_"Yes! I did it! _Finally!_" Zarbon's laugh became a cackle, "I _finally _achieved my dream! My face will remain beautiful forever!"_

_"I never thought I'd learn so many things by coming here." A new voice called out to him._

_Zarbon's cackle stopped instantly, the smile on his face dropping quickly._

_His hands, which cupped his cheeks lovingly, moved off of his face, his fingers trailing down his face._

_"No. Not now." He whispered to himself._

_Despite him hoping a hope that he knew would never be fulfilled, Zarbon looked behind himself, his eyes widening and his pupils shrinking._

_"L-Lord Frieza...!"_

_A short statured, demonic looking being stared down at Zarbon, his eyes, which reflected an anger that made his smile all the more unnerving._

_"I learned that loyalty is much harder to find in decent troops," Frieza began, floating up slowly, Zarbon knowing within himself that he screamed at his body to run away, but couldn't, for his body was petrified with fear, "I learned that narcissism can be a much larger fatal flaw than arrogance," Frieza was descending slowly to the ground, his glare never leaving Zarbon for a second, "And most shockingly, I learned that "forever" lasts for a _much _shorter time than I'd originally intended."_

_Zarbon's eyes grew wide, and he finally found within himself the strength to move back one step._

_"I should thank you Zarbon," Frieza narrowed his eyes at him, "You've taught me that wishing to live forever won't be a very productive use of my wish. As a reward, I'll teach you that a beauty that lasts "forever" is something," Frieza's smile dropped, his face becoming a scowl, his ki bursting out of his body in a large sum, venom dripping out of his voice, "_That will only last five seconds._"_

_If there were a record for the most terrified faces, updated every day, during an entire century in history, every last face that would've made the top ten list since the record's birth, combined in their captured terror, would pale in comparison to how scared Zarbon looked in that moment._

_"Should I start counting?" Frieza asked, his smile returning, the venom in his voice gone, replaced by a cool calmness that somehow made the fear Zarbon felt much, much worse._

_"L-Lord Frieza...!"_

_A plea for mercy would only egg him on, Zarbon thought._

_He had seen the same thing countless times before._

_Frieza would threaten to kill someone, and their pleas for mercy would only create more bloodshed than one might think possible._

_In all his years of serving Frieza, Zarbon knew he never wanted to be on the recieving end of Frieza's wrath._

_And yet here he was._

_"One." Frieza's voice was still calm, his energy releasing itself in greater amounts, him slowly walking forward, like a predator when it has trapped its prey, "Two."_

_Frieza wasn't even going to milk the suspense and foreboding for all it'd be worth, Zarbon realized._

_He was actually counting seconds._

_"Three. Four."_

_He'd die no matter what he did, Zarbon knew that._

_So he decided to at least try to get away._

_Without even thinking twice, him knowing he hadn't the necessary time to do so to begin with, Zarbon whipped himself around, kicking off the ground and flying as quickly as his body would allow him._

_But it didn't matter._

_The second he took flight, Frieza was already in front of him, a hand pushed a centimeter away from Zarbon's face._

_"Five." Frieza said with a smile._

_A beam of light shot out of Frieza's hand and into Zarbon's face, his skull not sustaining the pressure Frieza's energy put against for an instant, the beam's circumference covering Zarbon's entire head, the beam hitting the boulder Frieza had been standing on a moment before, a small explosion being made but Frieza not caring._

_Frieza halted the flow of energy being released into his beam, and Zarbon's body fell from the air, it crashing down on the ground before laying limply._

_Where Zarbon's head used to be, there was now only an empty space, bits of the inside of his neck sticking out of the stump that was his throat._

_Frieza turned away from Zarbon's corpse, opening and closing the hand he'd used to kill him with._

_"It seems as though I've used a little too much of my energy." Frieza said to himself, only the scouter he wore to pick up two large power levels closing in on Namek._

_"Oh, so it seems my brother is here now as well." Frieza smiled darkly, "How fortunate. Now I have someone else to vent my anger on."_

_He flew away with that, a pool of blood forming around Zarbon's body as it pumped out blood._

Twil and Sky's eyes had become wide as plates at this level of brutality, both driven to utter speechlessness.

"The man you just saw die is Zarbon," Trunks spoke, his eyes not leaving the Scroll, "He was the highest ranking member of Frieza's army that hadn't gained his own unit to lead. Zarbon was Frieza's right hand man, but despite that fact, Frieza killed him just as harshly as he did countless people."

He gave them a moment to let this sink in, then spoke again, with a genuinely questioning tone, "Do you understand why I decided to just kill Frieza instead of trying to reason with him now?"

Silence was his answer.

"I thought so." Trunks said with a note of finality, closing the Scroll, "At this moment, this is the timeline you're going to be assigned to."

"How... how could he..." Twil found the task of breathing, let alone talking, to be nearly impossible, her eyes widened to their greatest extent, "How could anyone do something so gruesome..."

Trunks glanced at her, seeing the tears forming around her eyes.

Remembering that this girl was only thirteen, and hadn't been through the things he had when he was her age, he felt guilt come over him in place of the bitterness he felt when he questioned his friends and family's role in Frieza wanting to destroy Earth.

"I'm sorry if this is too much for you. I assumed you would've been able to handle something like this." Trunks looked at Twil, with more self-loathing in his expression than pity, "If you don't want to do this, then I can assign it to someone else."

"No." Twil replied, her voice cracked somewhat but firm, "I can't let something like this be. I have to fix this."

In Twil's expression was a sign of anger, Trunks could see it clearly.

She had an anger at seeing such a horrible thing done to someone else she didn't even know, and with that anger, she now wanted to do something about it.

If the situation were different, Trunks most likely would've smiled.

It was like looking at his past self, crying tears from sheer fury that found no place to vent it in.

Maybe he'd like this girl after all, he thought to himself.

"If you're both ready, then you'll both be going there now. I'll give you directions for what you need to do to fix the timeline as you go," Trunks looked between Twil, who wiped away the tears that formed in her eyes, and Sky, whose scowl didn't leave his emotions on the matter to the imagination, "Are you two ready?"

Both the Majin and the Saiyan nodded once, simultaneously, and Trunks held out the Scroll of Eternity for them to grasp.

"On the count of three, imagine yourself on the planet where Zarbon died." Trunks instructed.

Hearing this, the two nodded.

"One."

They both looked at the Scroll with intense gazes.

"Two."

They started to close their eyes.

"Three."

They imagined Namek, in its tranquil glory, and felt both of their bodies moving against forces that shifted in ways they couldn't predict, the only solid thing they could hold onto being the Scroll.

Then the next second, their feet landed on solid ground, both opening their eyes and looking around themselves.

Their first mission had begun.

* * *

**A/N: Ahhh... 12.5 thousand words and I _still _haven't put all the material I wanted in this chapter.**

**I guess this'll be a two-parter. A VEEERY LOOONG two-parter...**

**Anyways, if anyone can guess which Abridged character I'm basing Dumplin's personality off of, kudos to you. If you want a hint, I will give you this one word: Dracula.**

**If you want another hint, the Abridged series the character is in is a TFS Abridged series. It'll likely be halfway done on the Halloween of next year.**

**Sky is property of zZ SkyNinja Zz, Twil is property of jameis, T.P. is half-property of me (since he's basically just the trailer character given a voice), and Dumplin's property of his "daddies" at TFS. Unless he goes and kills them all again, though the chances of that should be slim.**

* * *

**Extra**

**Life of a gender swapped T.P.**

**Segment #1: F.P. the Kuudere**

* * *

"I wish I could help them too. But really, I can't." Trunks said, F.P. looking in wonder at the man in front of her, her red hair tied into a braid.

She wore attire befitting of a person who would be expected to be a school-goer at first glance. A dark colored vest covered her white dress shirt, her wearing a skirt that reached below her knees, her wearing flats and low socks as her lower attire.

"You're absolutely sure you can't give me permission?" She asked again, her expression blank, her blue eyes reflecting a flicker of curiosity.

Trunks turned away from F.P., arms still crossed, looking at the open scroll, "It's more that I don't even have the ability to give that kind of permission to begin with. Contrary to popular opinion, I'm really no one's boss around here. I'm more like some secretary." Trunks closed his eyes, "I'm not even allowed to help to do any of the work I assign to people. I'm just a guy who looks for any problems that need fixing, and has to call someone else for help when I already have the things I need and the knowledge of the problem to fix it."

As bitterness nestled itself within Trunks' tone, F.P. listened silently.

"I have the grandeur honor of having to watch my beloved friends and allies _die _right in front of my eyes! Over and over and over and _over_! What an awesome job I have! A job with no vacation days, where there's salary for literally everyone except for us and I can't even talk to my freaking family!"

F.P. stared blankly at Trunks as he yelled his frustrations up into the air, her slowly walking behind him.

"Oh what a wonderful place this is! A place where I can get a good view of Snake Way but can't so much as touch the damn thing! Where my entire universe is a small plaza where for a month I only had a 75,000,000 year old goddess and owl for company, with it being only made more awkward by the former doing everything within..."

Trunks trailed off when he felt arms wrapping themselves around him, F.P. hugging him from behind, her eyes closed.

"Uh... F.P.?"

"Yes?"

"Why are you hugging me?"

"You're angry, aren't you?" F.P. asked calmly, not ending her embrace with her partner.

Trunks was about to deny it, but then realized how much of a lie saying that would be.

"I guess I am." He admitted after a moment.

"I read that the brain releases oxytocin to relax a person when they've been hugged for over twenty seconds. I'm trying to help you with a hug." F.P. said.

Trunks glanced behind himself at the girl hugging him.

Her eyes were closed, and her expression was blank.

So, as usual, Trunks couldn't read her emotions.

He sighed softly.

"Thanks for trying to help F.P. But this is a bit uncomfortable."

"It'd be less uncomfortable if you were facing me. Could you do that for me?" F.P. pulled away from Trunks without waiting for his response.

Trunks would've stared at F.P. had he been facing her, but with a mental sigh, he complied with her words, turning himself around to face her completely.

With this done, F.P. hugged Trunks again, leaning her head into his chest, her eyes closed.

Trunks looked at her awkwardly, not entirely sure what to do.

Taking the most obvious course of action, Trunks hugged F.P. back, holding themselves in this embrace for a long moment.

When half a minute passed them, F.P. asked quietly, "How do you feel now Trunks?"

"Tired." Trunks said with a groggy voice.

F.P. lifted her hand up, gently placing it against the upper part of Trunks' neck, "Lay down then."

She pulled him down, and Trunks complied, both figures getting on their knees as F.P. kept pulling Trunks down, making him rest his head on her shoulder, edging to the center counter of the Time Vault and leaning her back on it.

"Try to lay down for a little while. You need it." F.P.'s voice was neither stern nor forceful, it being the overly poised suggestion of a person trying to help.

Trunks sighed, then shifted himself, F.P. gently grasping his head and laying it on her thighs, Trunks laying on his back as she did this, him closing his eyes.

"Thank you for trying so hard to help me."

"What are friends for?" F.P. replied, and Trunks opened his eyes and saw her blank expression greet him, smiling despite this.

"You're a good friend then."

"Thank you. I try." F.P. replied, her glancing behind herself, seeing the scroll hanging near the edge of the counter, "Trunks?"

"Yes?"

"We shouldn't let any changes in history happen, correct?"

Trunks turned to look up at her, "No, we shouldn't."

"I'll need to go back then."

"What for?"

"While you were gone earlier, I was studying the events of that timeline for any potential changes in history. And there was something abnormal about the androids there."

"What was so abnormal about them?"

"They joined forces with Gohan, and then never attacked anyone again without just cause. If I remember correctly, they never even attacked you when you fought them by yourself that one time." F.P. then described the other things she'd seen, how she saw the androids eventually leading completely normal lives in society.

As she described these events, Trunks tried to raise his head up, but F.P. immediately brushed her hand over his forehead, pushing it down onto her lap again, "Rest Trunks. This can wait."

He sighed, "Sorry. I guess I'm a little curious is all."

"Curiosity killed a cat, so you should be no different." F.P. said flatly.

Trunks laughed lightly, "Was that supposed to be a joke?"

"I suppose it wasn't that funny."

"No, it wasn't, but at least you tried."

Trunks laid himself back on her, F.P. closing her eyes and sitting for a long time, the silence between the two introverts not bothering F.P.

After a few minutes passed, F.P. opened her eyes again, looking up at the ceiling, "Trunks, may I ask you something?"

Trunks didn't answer her.

"I'm curious about your mother. Is there anything you could tell me about her?"

Silence was her answer again.

"Trunks?" F.P. looked down, then blinked when she saw that Trunks was fast asleep.

Seeing this, the girl allowed a smile to come across her face.

"Sleep well Trunks." She said.

A flash of light caught her attention the next moment, and F.P.'s smile dropped as she looked for the source of it, finding Taino at the entrance of the Time Vault, happily dancing as she swung a digital camera in her hands, singing loudly, "_I got it, I got it, I freaking-freaking got it! She's smiling, she's smiling, the robo-chick is smiling!_"

"Taino, what are you doing?" F.P. asked, her blank tone returning.

"I now have a picture of you smiling!" Taino yelled, smiling down at her, "I now have a treasure worth loads of zeni!"

"What? How can a picture be that valuable?" F.P. asked, slowly raising her finger and carefully aiming with her mind's eye.

"You don't know how much people are willing to pay to see you –"

A finger beam shot itself through the air, it weak but still strong enough to pierce Taino's camera, it breaking upon impact.

"– Hey! I just bought that thing!"

"'The staff of Toki-Toki City bears no responsibility over damaged items of a person.' You agreed to that condition when you joined the Time Patrol didn't you?"

"'Bears no responsibility' my foot! You owe me a camera!"

"Zap," F.P. shot Taino's shoulder with a finger beam, "Zap," repeated this action on Taino's stomach, "Zap."

With a well-aimed shot to the head, Taino was knocked out of the Time Vault, F.P. paying no mind to this and leaning against the center counter of the Time Vault, falling asleep with Trunks laying on her.

* * *

**Just a What-If scenario I imagined, exploring how differently certain parts would've gone if T.P. were a girl. In this instance, T.P., or F.P. rather, was a Kuddere, which is usually that girl in some stories that's usually a nice person but just hides it behind a habit of hiding their emotions for any number of reasons.**


	7. Mission (Part 2)

Within seconds, Sky heard Trunks saying the first order.

"Alright, now that you're there, you need to locate Frieza and his men. They'll be attacking Namekians as they try to force them to give away their dragon ball."

"What are we supposed to do?" Sky asked, Twil looking down at the scroll as they waited for a response.

"Your current objective is to lower your power levels as low as you possibly can, then hide while making sure that no one will spot you."

"Isn't that kind of the point of hiding?" Twil asked, "To make it so no one will see you?"

"Yes, but based on what T.P. told me, neither one of you can sense power levels, though you can control your own. You need to hide but make sure that you can still see what's happening."

"You want us to be able to watch without getting spotted?" Sky asked incredulously, "How are we supposed to do that?"

"I just told you, lower your power levels. If they're lowered, then you don't have to worry about them spotting you, since they can't sense energy either."

Sky shared a look with Twil, both of their faces reflecting just how little faith they had in Trunks' orders.

"Start heading behind the boulder that's behind Sky. You need to hurry, or you'll miss your chance." Trunks' voice spoke to them from the scroll they held in their hands.

"How do you know we aren't already?" Twil asked.

"Because I'm watching you. You need to hurry." Trunks' voice rose a few notes in urgency when he said his second sentence.

"But how?" Twil asked, opening up the scroll quickly, seeing Trunks on the other side, "This thing is closed. How could you see - !"

Both figures looked up in surprise when they saw a bright flash of light cover the world for a moment, the light source fading from behind Sky, in the direction Trunks had described to them, their surprise stemming from the small earthquake that occompanied the light, it sounding as though it had been an explosion.

"Both of you need to get moving now!" Trunks yelled, and the duo looked at each other before nodding simultaneously, them both turning to face towards the direction Trunks described to them before levitating a short distance, both flying forward with great speed.

Both quickly stopped however when they arrived at a scene of a small group of people standing closely together, amongst a large number of corpses that littered the ground, many oddly shaped houses in the area.

Both kept their power levels hidden very well, them hovering beside a boulder as they both peeked around it.

When Sky's eyes took in a closer look of the scene, his eyes widened somewhat.

"What the...? Why are those two there?" Trunks' voice asked in a confused manner.

Sky couldn't find it within himself to blame him

Before Sky and Twil were the only two Namekians still standing, one being Dende and the other a much older Namekian.

Across from them were three figures, one being Zarbon, one very large dragon ball tucked under his left arm, his other arm raised up, another being Frieza as he sat on a throne, and a third being a pink skinned figure with many spikes sticking out of his head, all three wearing armor sets that were each a different color set.

Between the two groups were two female Majins, one seeming to have trouble standing and the other holding her arm.

"Who the heck are those two?" Twil leaned herself in, eyes curious, trying to get a good look at the Majins.

It didn't make sense for there to be Majins anywhere, since, from Twil's understanding, her race had barely cropped up for a few decades before she had been born, and this took place several years before then.

The two looked to be twins, around Sky's age, she noticed.

"Did you send those two in Trunks?" Sky asked, seeing Zarbon lowering his raised arm as he looked at the twins.

"No, I didn't. Those two are probably the cause of this timeline though. I haven't seen them in any other of the time lines." Trunks responded with a calm expression, just a moment before Zarbon spoke himself, the man who currently wore a braid instead of a ponytail staring at the twins.

"It's quite strange Lord Frieza. Their power levels are quite strong, close to my and Dodoria's in fact, and yet just one attack and they can barely stand." Zarbon did an aside to his leader, who regarded the twin Majins with a curiosity that mixed with irritation.

"I never would've expected something as abstract as this to happen." Frieza replied, his eyes never leaving the two that glared defiantly at him, despite their wounded state, "First there are warriors that can match up to my soldiers, and now there's another race here getting in my way that can match up to you two."

"Should we dispose of the Namekians?" Zarbon asked curiously.

"Yes, since they seem to refuse to talk." Frieza narrowed his eyes at the people in front of him, "Though it will be strenuous, we will have to make do without scouters at this present moment. For now, kill them. We're only wasting time by staying here."

Zarbon looked at the girls in curiosity a moment more, then lowered the dragon ball tucked into his arm onto the ground, him stepping forward to be at Dodoria's side, the pink skinned man smiling rather maliciously at the twins and the Namekians that stood behind them.

"Do you want to split them half and half this time Zarbon?" Dodoria asked, his eagerness showing strongly.

"On the contrary, I'd prefer not to get my hands dirty over fools like these. If you need help, I'll provide it to you. Otherwise, I'll leave everything to you."

Dodoria's smile only strengthened at that, "Then the pleasure's all mine."

The second he finished this sentence, he dashed forward, quicker than both Majins could react, flying past them and appearing behind the elder Namekian present, grasping his head and twisting it harshly, Sky's eyes widening at this sight, the man's mangled neck remaining in that state as he fell forward, slamming down on his knees before slamming down on his face a moment later, the newly made corpse unmoving.

Dodoria turned to the younger Namekian, Dende, the boy looking up at him in a petrified manner.

Seeing Dende's fear, Dodoria gave a broad smile, him lifting his hand over his head, Sky's eyes widening.

He was going to kill him, Sky realized.

His body started to react before he could think, him flying out of his hiding spot with the intention of helping Dende, only for him to ram into Twil, who was aiming to do the exact same thing, them both crashing hard into the ground, Sky falling hard on top of Twil.

"What are you doing?" Trunks hissed, "Get back under cover before they see you!"

Even as the two rushed to get back up, their faces flustered at their folly, something happened that caught both Twil and Sky's attention.

A blur appeared and kicked Dodoria so hard that the portly alien was sent flying through the air, crashing into a small Namekian home, the structure collapsing on top of the man's body.

The blur turned out to be Gohan, him wearing a purple gi with a red belt and wrist bands, another blur appearing next to him a split second later and grabbing Dende, picking him up and running to the two Majins, yelling quickly, "You, the one who got hit by the blast hardest, use Gohan to support you. We need to run!"

Gohan had already reached the side of the Majin who had difficulty standing, wrapping an arm around the taller woman and flying up quickly, Krillin and the other Majin following suit.

As Sky watched this spectacle, he saw Dodoria stumble to get out of the rubble, and realizing that he was still out in the open, he grabbed Twil and pulled her roughly behind the boulder they made for cover, holding the girl in a tight embrace, the girl complying without conflict.

The sound of Dodoria, Zarbon and Frieza speaking to one another filled the air, but Sky was unable to make their words out, him looking up at the sky a moment later and seeing Zarbon and Dodoria both flying after the group of five as they fled, the dragon balls no longer carried under their arms.

"Alright, even if you've been through a shaky start, you can still fix this timeline." Trunks spoke to them through the scroll, "You have to pursue and intercept Zarbon, but let Dodoria go on."

Sky's eyes widened at this as he looked down at the scroll.

"What? Why? Isn't that Dodoria guy trying to kill those Namekians too?" Sky asked, him quickly deducing that Dodoria was the man with pink skin simply because of the fact that Trunks didn't recognize anyone else who was still alive that they could possibly let go after they intercepted Zarbon.

"Yes, but you need to follow them before you lose the trail you have on them, or it'll be too late to save anyone."

Sky fell into a deep silence, then looked down at Twil, her legs dangling off the ground somewhat from him lifting her up, him noticing for the first time that her eyes were widened completely.

"Hey," Sky said, "We need to get going. Can you stand up?"

"I... I can..." Twil said slowly, Sky letting her go as she shakily rose to her feet, her taking a step forward as she clutched the Scroll tightly in her hand, before a sound emitted from her.

Sky realized quickly that it was an involuntary sob that emitted from her.

"How could they do something like that...?" Twil asked, her starting to float and fly forward, after the quickly retreating powers.

Sky flew beside her and saw that tears were forming in her eyes, and remembering the dead Namekian elder, he closed his eyes a moment, then opened them, wrapping Twil in a tight embrace, "We can't stay here. If we don't stop them, then it'll make matters worse."

With that, he sped off through the air at full speed.

Twil didn't respond as she was carried forcibly by the Saiyan, her still incredulous at how ruthless a person Dodoria was, driven to speechlessness yet again.

Sky noticed her silence, but didn't say anything about it, him more preoccupied with following Zarbon and Dodoria, who flew quickly after the retreating group.

As Zarbon himself flew through the air, he felt a very strong killing intent emitting from the person beside him.

Though Zarbon knew he could've caught the people who had interfered in a few seconds' time, even with the head start they'd had on him, years of working with Dodoria made him know this was not the best course of action.

The slower man angrily cursed the man, women and children flying away from them, his livid state something Zarbon had grown accustomed to.

Zarbon knew for a fact that letting Dodoria vent out all of his anger then and there would be the best solution, for using any other course of action often resulted in Dodoria being unnecessarilly violent, any other unfortunate victims within Dodoria's reach often being on the recieving end of his wrath.

As the person who typically had to calm his anger in the event that Dodoria went berserk from rage, Zarbon decided to let the problems of the present fix the ones predestined to happen in the future, or in short, kill two birds with one stone.

Even assuming Dodoria wasn't satisfied with bloodshed, the more anger he let out before Zarbon himself had to interfere, the better things would be for him.

As he thought this, his attention was brought up by the sound of one man speaking loudly, "Solar..."

Zarbon looked up, seeing that the bald man had brought all of his middle and forefingers to be pointed towards his eyes.

"Flare!"

The next instant, both Zarbon and Dodoria screamed loudly as a flash of light, similar to a flash bomb, blinded them both, disorienting them completely as they screamed.

Sky started to close in on the soldiers at that moment, him being too far away for the Solar Flare to do too great an amount of damage to his eyesight, him looking down at Twil, "Twil, I can't do this while carrying you! You have to fight with me!"

Twil said nothing, only nodded after a second.

He shouted a warning that he was about to let go, and he followed through a second later, Twil falling through the air for a few seconds before she started to fly quickly, her catching up to Sky with ease.

"You can still fix this, all you need to do is seperate Zarbon from Dodoria. It doesn't matter how you go about it, drag him if you need to, you only have a couple minutes left."

Sky looked in surprise at this, sharing his look with Twil, who wiped her teary eyes and nodded towards the Saiyan, Sky hesitating but returning the nod, both turning and looking at the stunned duo simultaneously before accelerating their flight, Twil reaching Zarbon first and wrapping an arm tightly around his neck, the man gagging as she kept flying, Sky passing the spot Zarbon had been in and looking back at Dodoria, who yelled loudly while clutching at his eyes, then turned to look at Twil and Zarbon again.

After a few moments passed them by, with Zarbon just starting to struggle with Twil, something rather strange happened.

One second, Sky watched Twil as she forcibly pulled Zarbon away from Dodoria, who probably had recovered from the flash bomb type of attack at that point, and the next, something very harshly slammed into his skull, this commencing his plummet towards the terrain of Namek, it still speeding under him as he fell.

The pain that racked itself through his skull made it difficult to recover, yet, several meters above the water, Sky managed to do just this, stopping his flight while spinning himself around, him facing his namesake, the sight above him making his eyes widen in surprise.

A Majin, one of the same ones who had been fleeing with the man and child who had aided the Namekians, had kicked him in the head, he realized.

She looked down at him, her expression thoroughly annoyed, before she looked forward, her then smiling lightly.

Sky followed her gaze, his surprise growing when he saw that the other twin Majin was there, floating besides Zarbon, who grasped at his own neck, rubbing it lightly.

When the man recovered from the grip that his neck had been put under, Zarbon looked up at the Majin twin who'd attacked the younger Majin who'd been dragging him away for the past few moments.

Seeing the Majin floating next to him, Zarbon asked her the natural question anyone would think to ask in that moment, "Why are you helping me?"

"That doesn't matter." The girl's face was serious, her fists clenched, "We're only trying to ensure that your wish is granted."

"My wish?" He asked confusedly.

"You'll figure it out soon enough. Go back to rejoin your partner for now." Her crimson eyes trailed to behind Zarbon, and she flew forward, her movements a blur.

Twil had been flying up to reach Zarbon again, and the elder Majin moved quickly enough to appear before Twil in an instant, Twil getting a knee to her face that sent her back towards the ground.

Zarbon stared in surprise at this, him looking up at the girl, "Who are you?"

The girl barely gave him a side glance, her attention on the younger Majin under her, who recovered and stopped her plummet to the ground, a scroll still clutched tightly in her hand.

"If telling you will get you to leave faster, my name is Gallia. The girl behind us is my sister, Zeira."

Zarbon looked over at the other Majin, who waved as she smiled at him.

"Now, will you leave?" Gallia didn't dare to let her gaze leave Twil, but her voice was forceful, "If you stay here much longer, it'll be too late."

"Too late for what?" Zarbon asked.

At this point, Zeira had flown to the man's side, wrapping her arms tenderly around his, tugging him encouragingly while speaking, "Hey guy, I know you probably have a lot of questions for us, and that's great and all, but you really should get going. Otherwise that girl down there is probably going to force you to go farther away from your partner than what's probably safe."

Within her tone came a touch of urgency, even through her smiling face.

"But why are you helping me?" Zarbon stared, "After I attacked you, I'd understand you being injured. So why?"

Zeira smiled up at him, "Let me fill you in on a little secret," she leaned in close to his ear, whispering, "We can hide our power levels VERY well. We're actually so strong that your attack barely hurt us."

Zarbon's eyes widened.

Seeing his reaction, Zeira smirked, her speaking still, "Yup, us being all hurt was ALL acting. In fact, if we had to butt heads with your boss -"

A ki ball slammed into the side of Zeira's head, making it get blown to her left.

Whipping her gaze to look at the source of the ki ball, Zeira looked to find Gallia with her hand raised up, the ball of ki forming in her palm making clear the threat to shoot another ball at her sister's head, Gallia's eyes having finally left Twil.

"Let him go." Gallia said with an irritated look.

"Okay." Zeira's expression didn't slacken at all at the attack to her head, her even sounding as though she were about to laugh at her sister's expense, Zeira peeling herself away from Zarbon and smiling assuringly up at him, her tone becoming both serious and urgent despite this, "But seriously though, you need to get moving."

Zarbon seemed like he was about to respond, but Twil, who had started to fly at full speed around Gallia, to the area outside of her line of sight, had shot herself forward, Twil reaching Zarbon in a few seconds' time and wrapping her free arm around his neck again, her still going as she flew forward, Zarbon's body from the neck down being pushed in accordance to the path the wind went as it passed him.

This happened for only a split second however, before Twil stopped, Zarbon's body swinging in the grip she had around him.

She was still attempting to fly away, but was only doing so at a much slower pace than before.

Looking behind herself, Twil saw that Zeira had grasped her left ankle in a hasty grip, Twil still trying to move forward but Zeira dramatically slowing her down.

"I realize that you probably don't want us getting in your way, but sadly, you're getting in ours." Zeira lifted her free hand up, her palm aimed at Twil's turned face, "So I'll only tell you this one time before I blow your face off. Let go of Zarbon."

Without waiting for a reply, a ball of bright pink energy filled itself within Zeira's palm, it brightening the faces of all three in proximity of one another before Zeira tilted her head, the smile still on her face.

What happened next came at a surprise to Zeira.

Twil, with a great deal of speed, thrust her free foot backwards, it ramming itself into Zeira's forehead, with Sky flying to Twil's aid a split second later, his hair golden as he thrust his fist into Zeira's side.

Without bracing herself for the impacts of the attacks, Zeira quickly let go of Twil, her flying desperately away, the young girl turning back to look at Zeira as she gave Sky a furious glare.

Zeira thrust her knee at Sky's face as the male threw a punch at her stomach, the attacks hitting their targets simultaneously.

Both Sky and Zeira were thrown back somewhat by the attacks they threw at one another, but they recovered at the next second, Sky shaking his head at the dizziness he felt in his head, flying himself up so he'd be on eye-level with Zeira, who held a hand over the part of her stomach Sky had hit, Sky throwing a punch at her chest with his right fist, Zeira barely spinning herself backwards to her right and dodging his hit in its entirety, her adding to her momentum and spinning a full 360 degrees, before spinning even more, her thrusting her left knee into the middle point of Sky's shoulder span.

Sky fell forward a short moment, his ability to breathe ceasing, before his eyes steeled themselves. He spun around to face Zeira again, him throwing his hands forward, concentrating as he focused energy into his palms, several large ki balls shooting themselves at Zeira after he pulled his hands backward, one hand then pushing forward, then whipping back, his opposite hand moving just as quickly, his arms becoming a blur.

Zeira instinctively flew backwards, gaining distance between herself and Sky, her dodging and weaving out of harm's way. As she dodged the ki balls that were sent her way, Zeira used her ki sense to guide her movements instead of her sight, closing her eyes to reenforce this. In seconds, she relied completely on it as her veiled gaze turned away from Sky's blurred and rapidly moving hands, pulling itself up.

It was then that Zeira opened her eyes, and she quickly saw a sight that matched perfectly with what her ki sense told her; Gallia sped through the air, flying at an arc around the path that Twil took.

Soon, Gallia was directly behind Twil, who hadn't even noticed her up to that point, with the distance between them shortening rapidly. Gallia intertwined her fingers, clenching them tightly, before lifting it up quickly, her anticipating the time it'd take before Twil would ram into her, and at the last split second, Gallia swung her arms down with all of her strength, the attack ramming into Twil's skull.

Due to the power behind the hammer strike, Twil's grip on Zarbon's neck loosened as they both fell, head first, towards the ground, and seizing the moment, Gallia grasped Zarbon's ankle, yanking him out of Twil's grasp and throwing him up, Zarbon's body rising a few feet, Gallia staring at Zarbon's stomach before her hands moved forward, grasping the man's sides before spinning him around right side up, Zarbon's eyes dazed somewhat as she grasped his sides again.

Seeing his dazed expression, Gallia moved her hands before gravity could make Zarbon start to fall again, gripping his uniform with her right hand and slapping him across the face repeatedly, speaking after every slap, "Wake up."

After five slaps, Zarbon's eyes refocused, and he caught her wrist in his hand, glaring slightly at her, "I'm awake."

"Good." Gallia gripped his armor much more tightly than before, whipping her arm back as Zarbon's body swung behind, "Now get moving NOW!"

Without waiting for a response, Gallia whipped her arm forward with all of her strength, letting go of Zarbon, whose body sped through the air at a fast rate, him closing his eyes as he felt the wind slapping his face.

Gallia then looked below herself, flying down to Twil as she started flying towards Zarbon again, her body glowing a small amount before she stopped right in front of Twil's path, staring at her with a deep glare.

"How much longer are you going to do this?" Gallia asked, arms crossing themselves, "You should've realized by now that the same thing will happen if you try to get in Zarbon's way, which is our way."

"I don't care what your way is, I'm not going to let that guy go." Twil entered a fighting stance as she stared down the elder Majin before her, her intention to fight clear, Twil knowing she'd be at a disadvantage with only one free hand to use, with the other holding onto the Scroll.

Gallia narrowed her eyes at her, then suddenly blinked, her expression taken aback as she looked surprised.

Twil wondered for a moment if this was a trick to get her to look behind herself and away from Gallia, out of curiosity for what had made Gallia look so surprised, and she stiffened somewhat in her fighting stance, telling herself not to look.

Instead, she decided to simply ask the girl in front of her the question that came to her mind.

"What's with that look?"

The glare returned to Gallia's face, and she cursed under her breath for a moment before glancing back in the direction she'd thrown Zarbon, her then closing her eyes and sighing.

"It looks like you win. I couldn't get Zarbon to reach Dodoria quickly enough." Gallia opened her eyes, her voice echoing in the sky, her talking to her twin, "Zeira! We don't need to be here anymore!"

Zeira, who had lunged herself to Sky and had been hitting him with a greatly assorted combination of kicks and punches, suddenly stopped, putting distance between herself and Sky, looking towards her sister quickly.

Sky lowered his raised arms, letting them sag as he breathed heavily, his stamina nonexistent.

"I have to stop using my Super Saiyan form like that." He said under his breath.

Due to his genes having too small an amount of "Saiyan" in them, his ability to use the Super Saiyan form had a time limit that had run out for him a few moments ago. Whenever this time limit, about a minute, ended, Sky's body would have felt an amount of exhaustion that would make his body nearly impossible to move without difficulty.

Zeira had taken advantage of this fact when his hair stopped glowing, Sky having no way of defending himself and therefore taking a bigger beating than he'd hoped for.

"Seems we were too late after all." Zeira yelled back, her flying towards Gallia's side and vice versa, Gallia not caring about Twil as she looked in the direction Zarbon had flown in.

"We should go. There's no point in staying here."

Zeira smiled, punching the air happily, "Yay!"

"What are you so excited for? We just failed." Gallia deadpanned her sister's response.

"Doing something like this is too time consuming." Zeira reached behind her head, grasping it.

Gallia rolled her eyes, then pulled a device that resembled a small standard calculator out of her pocket before placing a hand on Zeira's shoulder, lifting the device up and pressing a button, them being swallowed up in a flash of light, which disappeared seconds later, them gone with it.

Twil watched this with a bit of confusion, her looking towards Sky and contemplating what to do.

Though she wanted to check on Sky, she also realized that she'd lose the trail she had on Zarbon if she didn't move after him then.

And even if she checked on Sky and went after Zarbon immediately after, what were the chances of her remembering which direction Zarbon had gone in?

A quick glance around herself told her the chances of this were close to nil.

Why did everything look the same no matter where she looked?

"Trunks?" Twil looked over at Sky, whose figure seemed slumped even as she looked at him from a distance, "Would you be able to pick Sky up while I went after Zarbon?"

"You don't have to worry. Everything is as close to being fixed as it needs to be. You can go check on Sky."

Twil smiled in relief, then flew towards Sky, calling out to him when she was in earshot, "Sky, are you okay?"

"I'm alright." Sky yelled back to her, him still breathing heavily, "I'm just worn out."

"Oh, that's right, you're a Saiyan, huh?" Twil floated in front of him, and Sky gave a smile in response to hers.

"Yeah, and going Super Saiyan can have a pretty heavy price to pay if you're fighting someone strong. I'm barely able to fly right now."

"What's the point of using a transformation if it has more drawbacks than benefits?"

"It's called gambling. You'll understand when you're older."

Twil playfully hit him, "I'm old enough. We should probably get going though."

"Where's Zarbon?" Sky asked, looking in the direction he thought Zarbon had gone in.

"He's gone. We don't have to worry about fixing the timeline anymore. Trunks said so."

Sky looked at her in surprise, but nodded, Twil lifting up the Scroll for him to grasp, Twil counting down from three when he did this, them being consumed in light before disappearing.

* * *

When they reappeared in the Time Vault, Trunks' voice greeted them, "That wasn't too shabby for your first time. Good job you two."

"Thanks." Sky replied, his smiling face turning serious, "Do you know who those two were? Those twins I mean."

Trunks shrugged his shoulders.

"Your guess is as good as mine. They just appeared in this timeline and started manipulating it for the worse, so thanks again for doing this."

"Can I ask you something Trunks?" Twil asked, looking at the scroll in her hands.

"Sure, what?"

"What's going to happen to Zarbon now?"

"What do you mean?"

"After he comes back to Dodoria. What'll happen to him?"

For a moment, her answer was silence as Trunks stared at her, his eyes contemplative.

Should he tell her? He thought, recalling how several minutes before Twil had cried over Zarbon being brutally murdered.

"Do you know Trunks?" Twil asked, her gradually starting to dread the answer.

"I do. I'm just trying to decide if it's for the best for you to know." Trunks responded bluntly.

"Does something bad happen to him?"

"Yes." Trunks said after a moment.

"Alright then. You don't have to tell me then." Twil walked to him, handing the Scroll to Trunks, voice a bit low, "I think I've seen enough horrible things for one day."

Trunks blinked, but nodded nonetheless, "Alright. I'll send you both the money you've earned today to your homes as quickly as possible. Do either of you want to go on a Parallel Quest, or are you done for the day?"

Twil forced a smile onto her face, "I think I'm done for today. I'd rather not do anything else."

"Understood. Does the same go for you Sky?" Trunks glanced over at the Saiyan, who nodded.

"I need to let my body rest, so I won't be doing any more for now."

"Okay. Come talk to me if you need anything else." Trunks said, him starting to walk away while holding the Scroll of Eternity that Twil had given him.

Seeing this action as the equivalent of a dismissal, both Sky and Twil walked away, going up the stairs without looking back at Trunks.

As they walked down the steps, they found T.P. sitting on the grass, his left ear covered entirely by a new scouter, him sitting with crossed legs as he looked through a document, eyes narrrowed somewhat.

Noticing their presence, T.P. smiled up at Sky and Twil, waving a hand to them.

Both responded in kind, not a word being said between them.

Soon, both the Majin and the Saiyan exited the Time Nest via the portal, with T.P. again being engrossed in his work.

Minutes later, Trunks exited the Time Vault and walked down the steps, going straight towards T.P. when he noticed him sitting on the ground.

"Hey, T.P., are you okay?" Trunks asked as he walked through the grass, T.P. turning to look back at him.

"Yeah, I'm fine Trunks. I was just editing my report on the androids a bit."

"Really? May I see what you have so far?" Trunks asked, taking a seat next to him.

"Sure, that's fine." T.P. smiled somewhat, him feeling somewhat anxious as he handed Trunks his laptop.

As Trunks got into a crossed legged position next to his partner and propped the laptop on his legs, Trunks took the mouse cursor and clicked on the bar at the right hand side of the window, scrolling the document up.

When he reached the top, Trunks started to read what his partner had to report.

"_From what I can remember, androids 17 and 18 were both entities that wanted nothing more than to kill others. In attacking humans, they held little value over anything that wouldn't interest them. For 17, he always seemed to only care about guns, and for 18, she only cared about clothing and other such things. As far as I can tell, they both seemed very vain, often taking anything they see as something below them._

_However, after following Gohan Son to the Namek, this gradually seemed to be less and less of the case. At their arrival, the androids both tried to investigate what kind of place Namek was, only to be attacked by Gohan. Though their combined powers quickly overwhelmed him, Gohan himself didn't die due to the intervention of Namekian warriors and Gohan's friend, Dende. Assuming that Namekians were people who intended to kill them after another fight between the androids and Gohan happened, with Gohan having other Namekian warriors supporting him, the androids went about killing off the Namekian race so that this wouldn't happen. Eventually however, both were attacked by Hirudegarn, a giant monster that, at that point, only had two legs and a tail. Hirudegarn's tail is something of interest as well, since the monster seems to get nourishment by sucking things up inside of it._

_Hirudegarn attacked the androids, and tried to suck them both inside of its tail, yet only succeeded in sucking up other Namekians. Hirudegarn seemed to grow even stronger because of this, and the androids eventually fled when they both realized they couldn't kill Hirudegarn. Despite their retreat, Hirudegarn seemed to follow them, often only appearing when the androids stayed in one place for a long length of time. The only notable exception to this was when a man, Hoi, tried to convince Gohan to unseal a warrior trapped inside of a box, who Hoi said was the only one with the power to defeat Hirudegarn, the monster appearing at that exact moment._

_The convenience of this appearance worked in Hoi's favor, as Gohan was quickly overwhelmed by Hirudegarn's raw power. After the warrior was unsealed, he identified himself as Tapion, the monster disappearing after he appeared while playing a flute. Shortly after this, another entity named Cooler arrived on Namek and started..._"

This was all that Trunks was able to read from T.P.'s report before both looked up from the computer screen, hearing Toki-Toki's screech coming from above them.

As he flew down to them, Trunks looked up at the bird and saw that he had a Scroll clutched in his feet, it then glowing with a malevolent energy.

"When will these guys quit?" T.P. asked no one in particular, him grasping the Scroll out of Toki-Toki's claws, "Thank you Toki-Toki."

The owl landed, nodding his understanding to the red-haired Saiyan.

As he opened up the Scroll and willed it to show him what had gone wrong in the timeline.

"And it's this. Of course." T.P. sighed.

_Gohan narrowed his eyes as he entered a fighting stance, him glancing around himself, several large robots surrounding him and Dende, him looking at the robots in surprise._

_"Gohan, do you want me to use Binary Fission?" Dende asked, but Gohan shook his head._

_"We don't know what'll happen if you do that. It'll be fine. I'll protect you." Gohan looked around himself with a glare._

_"That'll be easier said than done." A man's voice spoke, Gohan looking up at the form of what seemed to be a taller version of Frieza in his Final Form, only his skin was silver._

_"What? How are you still alive?!" Gohan exclaimed in surprise._

_Cooler smiled down at him, then flew down quickly, quicker than Gohan could react, and when he was in front of him, punched Gohan in the stomach, the boy's eyes widening quickly, his body slumping down and crumpling on the ground, Cooler looking up at Dende, who was too surprised to react before Cooler lifted his hand up, a beam shooting itself through Dende's chest, Dende's eyes widening before they closed, Dende falling on his back, purple blood spilling through the hole in his body, a large robot walking forward, bending down and picking Gohan's body up, it carrying his unmoving body away, the other identical robots flying after him, Cooler walking to Dende's dying form before lifting his foot up, pressing it down on the boy's head, pressing down hard on it._

_Dende couldn't react as the pressure being put on his head under Cooler's foot heightened in intensity, and it continued to rise as Dende's skull started to crack._

_And then, in the next instant, Cooler's foot crushed Dende's head underfoot, the man smiling cruelly at the sight before lifting his now bloody foot off of Dende's corpse, flying up into the sky after the many robots that still surrounded Gohan._

T.P.'s eyes were widened greatly in horror at the sight of this, him unbelieving of this level of brutality.

"Dear God..." He said to himself.

Trunks held a hand over his mouth, eyes wide.

"Why would he...? Why would anyone...? Even Frieza had a halfway decent for killing Zarbon, but this..." Trunks couldn't describe his own feelings in words.

"Oh my... No! Dende, no!"

T.P. couldn't even react properly either.

"Even Frieza had a halfway decent for killing Zarbon, but this..." Trunks trailed off, him looking at his hands, eyes widening, his tone becoming worried, "Why is this happening again?"

T.P. looked at him, and his eyes widened once again, him seeing a very plausible reason for Trunks' concern.

His body had turned translucent.

T.P. looked down at the Scroll, willing it show him any other changes made to history.

It showed him none.

Realizing this, T.P. started to get up, only to realize that Toki-Toki had already gone, him seeing the owl flying back to them, a Scroll clutched in its claws.

Toki-Toki dropped it down to T.P., who caught it, opening it up and once again willing it to show him the change done to history, and his eyes widened when he saw something he knew shouldn't have been there.

_Two men stood over multiple people, one being tall, grey skinned and having black hair tied into a braid, and the other being short, purple skinned and having a big hat, wearing sunglasses that covered his eyes._

_Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha, Krillin, Tien and Chiaotzu all lay underneath all of them, a woman with blue hair looking onwards with fear as the two men who remained standing looked over at her, her standing in front of Capsule Corporation._

_Bulma looked behind herself, towards the closed doors, then looked back at the androids, her speaking in a would-be calm voice, "Would you mind waiting for us to bring the person you want here? There's no point to dragging this out any further than we have."_

_"There is no need for that." The grey skinned man lifted his hand up, a beam shooting forward, piercing through Bulma's stomach, going through her stomach and striking the building behind her._

_The beam ended the instant this happened, the resulting explosion blowing Bulma's body forward, her body crumpling on the ground._

_Over the sound of the fire, the sound of a baby crying filled the air._

_Bulma's eyes widened in horror as she realized who it was, and she looked up at the androids, her voice weak but her still trying to speak, "Don't you -"_

_Her head chopped down, her throwing up a large amount of blood on the grass she lay on, her doing this for a few moments before her vision grew hazy._

_Her head fell into her blood, yet despite this, Bulma used all of her strength to lift her head up, her eyes not reflecting fear, but fury, "Don't do this." A large deal of blood came up her throat, and she spat it all out, but her voice kept speaking after she recovered enough to lift her head up again, "If you hurt," more blood came, but she spoke through it, "My son, then," her eyes narrowed deeply, even in her immense pain, "I will KILL you!"_

_The shorter android lifted his hand up, aiming it at her defiantly glaring face, before a beam shot through her forehead, Bulma's head slumping limply on the ground._

_Uncaring for the mother's death, the android lifted his hand up and started shooting the building over and over, explosions filling the air, the useless cries of the infant soon ceasing._

"Mother!" Trunks yelled, him having gotten up to look over T.P.'s shoulder.

His eyes were a mixture of fear and a fury that made his eyes seem to light up.

"Those bastards!" Trunks snarled, his hands grabbing for the Scroll, "I'll kill them, I'll..."

His anger was then replaced by surprise when his hand passed through the Scroll, and Trunks looked in surprise at his own hands.

Then, just as quickly as the anger left, it returned with a vengeance.

"Damn it, damn it, DAMN IT!" Trunks roared to the heavens.

T.P. lowered his head at his partner's anguish, his eyes shining with a layer of tears, "Why...?"

"Quit it with the waterworks already. What's going on you two?" A voice appeared in front of them.

T.P. looked up at the source, his mood not uplifted in the slightest, "Why are you here?"

"I was here the whole time. I just came by because I wondering what this prick was crying about." Dumplin spoke, looking at Trunks.

Trunks didn't react at all to Dumplin's words, him looking at T.P., his voice deadened as he spoke to his partner, "T.P., you have to save my mother."

T.P. looked over at his partner, and nodded, rolling the Scroll up, before he lifted it up, his thoughts unquestioning.

"What about the other distortion thing? Are you just going to leave that alone?" Dumplin asked, and T.P.'s thoughts were broken by this.

"I don't give a damn about that!" Trunks snapped loudly at Dumplin, his eyes turning to T.P., "Go!"

"Dumplin, you need to go and fix the other distortion, I'll fix this one."

"Yoink!" Dumplin snatched the Scroll out of T.P.'s hands, and T.P.'s own eyes flashed in anger.

A flash of golden light burst from T.P.'s body, and his knee drove itself into Dumplin's face, him snatching the Scroll out of the Majin's gloved hand.

"Quit screwing around you idiot!" T.P. roared.

The next second, he felt a punch to his face break the scouter he wore, blowing him back and making his body roll across the ground.

T.P. lifted himself back up at the next second, his teal eyes narrowed in a death glare, Dumplin having taken the Scroll back out of T.P.'s hand and having lifted it up in his own hand.

"My Dumplin sense tells me that I need to be the one who goes to this timeline."

"Screw you and your "Dumplin Sense"!" T.P. yelled, kicking the ground, blowing a large deal of dirt into the air as he lunged himself at Dumplin.

At the last second, Dumplin disappeared with "pop" sound, and T.P. flew through the space where Dumplin had been, him crashing face first into the ground.

Cursing under his breath, T.P. scrambled to get back onto his feet, finding that Dumplin had reappeared there.

"I'll save your weak friends, don't worry." Dumplin responded.

He entered the timeline without waiting for a response.

A new Scroll fell to the ground, and T.P. ran to it, picking it up.

"Why won't that guy listen?" He said with a scowl, his hand clenching the Scroll in his hand tightly.

Trunks looked at him, "T.P., go after him. I don't know what he plans on doing, but I won't gamble my mother's safety for it."

He didn't even care about his own safety, T.P. realized.

He glanced at the other Scroll a moment, realizing that if he went to keep Dumplin in check that he'd be leaving the first distorted timeline to be corrupted.

Would it really be a good idea to go after Dumplin, when there was another timeline being made worse?

But then, T.P. realized, would it really even be a good idea to trust Dumplin of all people with someone else's safety?

Based on what little he knew about the Majin, he tended to cause more harm than help whenever he utilized his powers, even if he himself didn't realize it.

Would it be better to go help Bulma, or to go help Gohan?

* * *

**1\. Androids! Follow Dumplin!  
2\. Save Gohan! Destroy the Star!**

* * *

**A/N: And now the "Interactive" factor of my story appears.**

**The chapter was originally going to end with T.P. having the choice to either go to the timeline where the androids killed all the Z-Fighters and Bulma or to go save Gohan, with Dumplin himself choosing the opposite choice in correspondence, but then I started writing Dumplin in the chapter.**

**For some reason having it end like that felt very OOC considering the type of person Dumplin is. And so it ended like this.**

**The titles beside**** the numbers** **are the titles of the route****s**** a person takes by choice.**

**And now for the part of this story that I will most certainly enjoy doing but you will almost certainly not care about: DBX 2 Wishlist!**

**If you don't understand what this is, this is basically my way of saying what I hope for if there's a sequel to Xenoverse. Some of them will deal with things such as how I hope the fighting system will be, or there will be other things that deal with either gameplay, story, or completely different things.**

**I will start it off with the lastly mentioned of the ones mentioned, simply because of the fact that I spent a few days setting up for it, which will possibly be for naught if you have no way of connecting to YouTube.**

**DBX Wishlist  
Wish Number 1:  
Have Teen Gohan's voice actor be Yuri Lowenthal instead of Colleen Clinkenbeard.**

**The reason for this is because I personally believe that Yuri's voice would feel a lot more fitting for Gohan than Colleen.**

**Why do I feel like this? Simple.**

**I edited clips from Xenoverse and Burst Limit to reflect what it'd probably be like if Yuri Lowenthal voiced Teen Gohan.**

**youtu. be/ 8tQrCxWaSJU**

**There's the link. If it doesn't show up right, if at all, then just go to YouTube and look up "Alternate Voice Actors (Teen Gohan)" and look for the video with a thumbnail of Gohan in his Super Saiyan 2 form with his hands on his knees. I'm pretty sure it'll come up first in the li****st.**


	8. Androids! Follow Dumplin!

T.P.'s eyes looked at the scroll that Dumplin had just used, and he realized then that he held not the slightest faith in Dumplin.

Though his duties as a Time Patroller were in priority, he couldn't be sure if he could leave it to Dumplin, of all people, to not actually make things worse than they already were.

The choice was obvious.

He scooped the Scroll off of the ground, picking it up quickly and concentrating, his heart racing quickly as light engulfed him.

When the light faded, T.P. instantly whipped around, eyes narrowing.

He stood in the center of the entrance to the Capsule Corporation's building, and before the entrance were the two darkly glowing androids who had caused him to come here, columns of black smoke filling the air in the surrounding area, coming from the flaming buildings in the vicinity, darkening the the orange sky.

Facing away from him were Vegeta, Piccolo, Tien, Krillin, Yamcha and Chiaotzu as they stared at the duo, yet there was something T.P. didn't quite understand as he looked at this spectacle.

T.P.'s gaze scanned his surroundings, his confusion growing as he did this.

Where had Dumplin gone?

He turned to face the Capsule Corporation building, looking through the skies for any sign of the Majin.

Not seeing him anywhere, T.P.'s hand instinctively reached up to push at the button of his scouter, only for him to stop just shy of pushing said button, lowering his hand again.

"How could I forget?" T.P. said to himself with a bitter tone.

If it hadn't been for Dumplin punching him, his scouter would still be usable.

Now it was only a broken mess of glass shards and a technology.

The young man grasped his scouter, pulling it off of the side of his head before looking at it, sighing softly.

His third scouter in the past couple days...

He pushed the technology into his pocket, his ear feeling all but normal with his scouter off, before turning back to the warriors, hearing Piccolo speaking.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Piccolo said, his right elbow raised behind his head as he held his left hand forward, his glare deep.

The shorter of the two androids smiled, #15 speaking, "I'm Android 15. We're only here to find the son of Goku. It'd be nice if you could tell us where he is."

"What do you want with Gohan?"

"Revenge." #15 replied, "But seeing as how Goku's gone and kicked the bucket, the doctor who sent us here's decided it'd be better for someone to take his place. And since his son's still around, you can figure out the rest."

Vegeta, who shared Piccolo's scowl, let his sneer deepen.

"How surprising," he said sarcastically, "First Frieza arrives trying to kill Kakarot, then his brother shows up to kill Kakarot, two androids come to kill Kakarot, and now two MORE androids are here. And what do you know? They're here because of Kakarot!"

"That's not the only reason we're here." #15 replied, smiling still, "We also came to take care of the androids that apparently screwed you all over. But they can wait. Our primary goal's killing Goku's kid. Will any of you make it easy on yourselves and tell us where he is?"

"As if we'd tell you!" Krillin yelled.

"There's no need to be that way. The doctor designed us to fulfill our purpose. And that purpose includes killing anyone who gets in our way." At this point, the android pulled a thin bottle of liquor out of his pocket, taking a few swigs of it before looking back at the warriors before him, "I'm guessing it's fair to assume you don't want to die any time soon. But if you won't cooperate with us, we won't have much choice but to beat it out of you."

"We aren't scared of you!" Yamcha snarled at him, "If you're really that set on getting to Gohan, you'll have to go through us first!"

#15's smile became morbid.

"Then you'll go first then."

As #15 dashed forward, at a speed that made him impossible to see with the naked eye, yet T.P. gave no sign of tension, eyes only narrowing.

At the same instant that #15 dashed forward, Yamcha charged in as well, #15 throwing a punch at the man when the distance between them was about to close, Yamcha weaving his body around the man's punch before responding in kind, his fist colliding harshly with the android's sunglasses.

Though the sunglasses themselves broke, #15's reaction was that of only slight surprise and annoyance as he was pushed backwards somewhat.

Yamcha flew away from him, eyes set in a glare as he landed softly on the ground again, "Not this time I'm not!"

"That punch of yours was stronger than I expected. My records don't show you being that powerful." #15 looked at him, his broken sunglasses revealing his eyes to be a robotic pair of metal balls as he threw them away, "Was there some fluke in the doctor's research?"

"What do you know about that? I got killed and was brought back to life stronger." Yamcha replied, speaking with a joking tone.

The smile returned to #15's mouth, "Let's see how much stronger then."

As #15 dashed forward again, Yamcha scowled, lowering his body posture before jumping himself off the ground, breathing in slowly as he concentrated his energy, #15 stopping abruptly before him, hand raised up as he focused energy into his lifted palm.

Yamcha spoke before the attack could finish charging however.

"Kaio-_ken_!" His eyes narrowed deeply as a red aura encased his body, Yamcha dashing to close the distance he had from the android in mid-air, his arms spreading themselves away from his body before his hands whipped forward, clasping themselves tightly around #15's forearm, Yamcha giving a new burst of speed as he ascended upwards, willing his body to spin itself forward, #15's body being forcibly pulled along with Yamcha's movements, the man accomplishing a full mid-air front flip before slamming his feet onto the ground again, him swinging #15 forward with all of his might, letting him go and watching as the android flew forward.

Yamcha tensed for a moment, his body stiffening, before he spoke quickly, "_Wolf Fang Fist!_"

He dashed forward once more, his body still alit with red, and he moved quickly enough to pass by #15's flying body, spinning around on the grass and skidding to a stop on it, #15 a meter away from him then.

He lifted his foot, kicking the purple skinned man in the head with his calf, making him fly away in another direction, his very large hat falling off, Yamcha's foot slamming hard on the ground before his hand whipped forward and clasped itself around #15's ankle, grunting as he threw #15 through the air with all of his strength.

As the android flew up through the air, Yamcha whipped his head towards the only three eyed member of the Z-Fighters, yelling, "Tien! Do it now!"

Tien started moving the second Yamcha called out to him, his thumbs pressing together and bending as the tips of his middle fingers pressed together, one behind the other, as his other fingers pressed tightly against their longest counterpart.

"Ki-"

At that instant, the other android, #14, dashed forward, moving past Piccolo and Vegeta before either of them could react, pulling his arm back for a punch towards Tien.

"-ko-"

At that same instant, T.P. also dashed forward, eyes narrowed as he flew through the air, passing by Krillin and Chiaotzu, him intercepting #14 at the last second with a knee to the gray android's face, it knocking him back.

"-ho!"

A diamond shaped outline of gold energy shot through the air, slamming into #15, who had just started to recover from the throw Yamcha gave, him being blown through the air, behind a column of smoke that veiled him from sight.

Tien looked over at Yamcha, "Get Bulma and get her out of here! We'll hold them off!"

Yamcha blinked in surprise at T.P.'s presence, but didn't comment on it, nodding, "Alright, I'll leave it to you!"

He flew straight towards the building, bursting through the front doors and immediately turning to his right, giving a new burst of speed as he flew down the hallway and up the stairs, turning around again and finding Bulma together with her parents and son.

Upon arriving, Yamcha immediately spoke, "Guys, there isn't much time. We need to leave now!"

Bulma nodded, taking a young, infant Trunks into her arms and holding him closer to her, him gazing curiously up at her, Bulma looking back at Yamcha, "Alright. We're ready when you are."

"Wait, I'm not sure we can go." Mrs. Briefs spoke, her voice filled with worry.

Yamcha and Bulma's reactions were simultaneous, their expression turning to a mixture of surprise and confusion.

"What?" Yamcha asked with surprise.

"WHY?" Bulma asked in disbelief.

"We can't leave the pets here." Dr. Briefs said, looking down the hallway, "They'll definitely die if we leave."

"_You cannot be serious_!" Yamcha yelled, "There are androids right outside! This isn't the time to be thinking about that!"

"We still need to stay. What's to say they'll destroy this building?" Dr. Briefs tried to reason.

Yamcha simply walked towards the window, covered by a curtain, and pulled the fabric away after turning to the the doctor and his wife, unveiling the many blocks of flaming buildings right outside the Capsule Corporation, there now being several flashes of light as a battle took place on the ground below them.

"That." Yamcha said in a deadpan manner, using the hand he used to move the curtains to point at the flaming city for emphasis. "They destroyed _half of the city_, and have made it clear that they will keep killing until they find out where either Gohan or the other two androids are. If that doesn't clear up that they are going to destroy this building if need be, I don't what else will."

"You have a point." Dr. Briefs admitted, "But even so..."

"Look, I'm sorry, but to be frank, we don't have time for this right now. I know you love your pets, but if we don't get moving, we may not have another chance for Gohan to get back here safely. Things are already bad enough for him on Namek as is. If we don't get you guys out of here, not only will many people have died for nothing, but Gohan may very well have gone through the trouble of fighting for his life on Namek for nothing, making everything you've done so far pointless."

Both grandparents shared a look of sadness, for they knew Yamcha was telling the truth, and then looked at him, with a look likened to a person when they realized their dog had died.

"Okay. We'll go."

"Alright, now we just have to -"

He was blown forward by an explosion that came from behind him, it being too sudden for him to sense it coming, debris flying everywhere as Yamcha was strewn face first on the floor, some covering him.

Bulma instinctively covered her baby protectively in her arms, covering Trunks from the debris, and holding herself somewhat still from a mixture of the shock she recieved from the explosion.

A few seconds passed, and Yamcha arose from the debris, shaking the dizziness out of his head before forcing himself back to his feet, him looking around and seeing both Dr. Briefs and Mrs. Briefs lying on the ground, them being affected by the explosion as well.

He ran to their sides, kneeling down and checking them for any signs of injury, finding over small cuts.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Yamcha looked over at Bulma, who slowly pulled herself up while holding Trunks in her arms, the baby now crying loudly, her groaning a bit.

"You alright Bulma?"

"I've been better." She replied, "Are they okay?"

"Yeah, just a few cuts is all." Yamcha looked back to Bulma's parents, "Do you remember what I taught you before?"

"About flying? Yes."

"Alright. That makes this easier then." Yamcha returned his attention to the married couple under him, carefully picking each one of them up before he stood back up, holding both of them against him as he turned to Bulma, nodding to her as they both levitated a short elevation in the air, them both flying away after Yamcha was sure she would be okay.

* * *

The second the androids blew a giant hole into the Capsule Corporation building, T.P. whipped his gaze over to see what had become of the people on the inside, only to see #15, now a much scarier version of what he looked like before, try to attack Yamcha.

He instantly flew towards the android, closing the large distance between them in half a second, grabbing #15's forearm with his left hand, yanking him back harshly, thrusting his knee into #15's back, T.P.'s right palm filling with blue energy as he swung it around, slamming it into the android's stomach, moving his knee away from its back and pushing his hand deeper into #15's stomach, increasing the energy within his palm the more he pushed into him.

With a grunt, he gave a burst of energy into #15's stomach, blowing the android back towards the ground, the impact making a small crater form.

T.P. dared a look behind him, and when he saw that Bulma and Yamcha were gone, he sighed in relief.

"Trunks, are you okay now?"

He looked up into the sky as he waited for an answer, but when he realized that he didn't have a Scroll, along with his scouter being broken, he realized that he wouldn't be able to hear even if Trunks responded.

He narrowed his eyes, sighing heavily in frustration, his eyes widening when he felt a powerful punch reach his stomach.

In the midst of his initial shock, he could hear #14 speaking to him, the gray skinned android having a scowl, "It would be wise for you to not to daydream when you're in the middle of a battle."

T.P.'s eyes narrowed quickly, "It's not like I need to concentrate. I've already done what I've needed to do."

"Is that so?" #14 responded curiously, only for him to pull his fist away from T.P., flying backwards to dodge Krillin's attempted kick to the face, the man cursing before facing down the android who looked back up at him.

"Look, I know you're pretty strong, but you need to be more careful when you're fighting." Krillin said, T.P. not realizing for a moment that he was talking to him since he never looked away from #14.

He responded tonelessly, "You don't need to worry. I've done what I've come here to do, so I'll be taking my leave now."

"What?" In his surprise, Krillin looked back at him.

"Watch your opponent." T.P. flew forward, thrusting his foot against #14's thrust fist, the two forces stopping one another, T.P. swinging his foot back and throwing the attempted fist away.

#14 narrowed his eyes at him, "Do you know where Goku's son is?"

"I do."

"Is it safe for me to assume you won't simply tell me where he is?"

"I'm afraid so. And even if I would tell you, I have more pressing concerns to address." T.P. looked up from #14, and his scowl deepened at what he saw in the distance. "And there's one of them over there. If you'll excuse me."

He poised himself to fly away, then burst forward through the air, his ki encasing him as he flew.

"H-Hey!" Krillin yelled behind him, "Why are you leaving?! I thought you were helping us!"

T.P. momentarily lost the ability to care about the short man's protests, him only focused on the person he'd found floating off in the distance.

"Isn't that interesting. I guess we know where your priorities lie now." Towa said upon him entering earshot and only coming closer to her as she sat on her floating double ended staff with Mira, who floated with crossed arms next to her, now fully clothed.

T.P. gave her no response, his focus only being on the person who was looking at his enemies as he sat down with an ear wide grin on his face.

"Hey there buddy. I see _you're_ really taking care of the problem." T.P. said as he looked at Dumplin, his arms crossed as sarcasm dripped from his voice.

"I found something more important than that."

"Oh really? Would you mind explaining to me in detail what you found so important that you'd leave someone to die?"

Dumplin looked at him then, "Was he really going to die?"

"Well, let's think about it rationally, shall we? A man in the future is gradually fading away from existence, and it's because a version of him from the past died. Because of this, the guy in the future has no reason to exist, causing the universe to make him into a ghost because it knows something isn't quite right about this time loop hole. While the universe decides to make that man's existence its bitch, we as time travelers are given the choice to fix it so that the universe doesn't try make him a translucent ghost."

"So in short, the past version dying makes the future version into the universe's bitch?"

"Basically, yeah. And funny thing, when I heard that you were going to go there and fix this for me, I kind of assumed you were going to do that. You even broke my scouter again because you wanted it so badly."

"In my defense, you hit me."

"Only because you were being an idiot!" T.P. yelled, "I can't believe I was about to trust you with this! Do you even care about other people?"

"I'm Dumplin, if I cared about people, it'd get too complicated too fast."

"Oh of course. _Figures_. I guess it was wrong for me to assume the psychopath who wears his hearts on his shirt would actually care about the fact that someone else's best friend was fading out from existence. Sucks too. I would've thought there'd be some hope for you if you weren't as dumb as this."

"Is this because I didn't save your daddy? I'm sorry if I thought your life would be easier that way."

"Oh no, don't get it wrong, if Trunks ended up dying, I know for a fact that my life would get harder."

"Why?"

"Because I'd dedicate the rest of my life to killing you until you were dead."

"Wow. I'm not sure what's funnier. You thinking you can kill a person to death," Dumplin's smile suddenly became more sinister, a dark aura covering his body, "Or you thinking you can kill _me_ to death."

T.P. was undaunted by Dumplin however.

"Usually, people die when they are killed. For you, you have to be killed so badly that your body can't even bounce back from it anymore. And yes, I know I can't beat you. That's why I said my life would get harder; if Trunks died because of some stupid stunt you pulled for kicks, I would not stop trying to kill you until I finally heard you go through every last bit of torment that I would feel after my friend's untimely demise before crushing your brain into mush."

"Oh-HO! Now THAT sounds interesting!"

Dumplin smiled, getting up from his seat before looking over at the Capsule Corporation, lifting a hand towards it.

"You're really that desperate to die?" T.P. asked, his tone neither surprised nor angry.

There was only an unsettling calmness.

Dumplin didn't respond, but T.P. didn't think he was contemplating his words, nor did he likely acknowledge the Saiyan's cold glare.

Dumplin only took a look at Towa and Mira, then lowered his hand, smiling more happily.

"Actually, no. I think I'll wait a bit. Killing that kid wouldn't be fun now."

T.P. narrowed his eyes, then looked over at Mira.

"Hey, Mira."

The man looked curious at his rival calling his name, "What is it?"

"Could you do me a favor?"

"Why would I do you a favor?"

"It's quite simple really. I want to kill this guy, but I know I'm not strong enough to beat him. And since he keeps eye-fucking your girlfriend, I think you'd probably want him dead too. So, to me, the best thing to do is to put aside our differences, join forces against a common evil, and save every person in existence the trouble of having to ever talk to this all-destroying piece of gray matter. What do you say?" T.P. said all of this with his eye starting to twitch, reflecting his barely contained rage.

But Towa was the one to answer his question.

"First off," she lifted her right index finger up, "I am not his girlfriend, I'm his wife. Second," she lifted another finger, her middle one, "He would never join forces with anyone, much less you. Though you're the only one who he sees as a worthy opponent, that only means he wants you dead. And even if that weren't the case, he's too prideful to not take care of problems himself."

"Oh man, are you going to take that Towa?" Dumplin piped in.

The woman lowered her fingers, looking confusedly at Dumplin, "Take what?"

"You saying he has too much pride. If Towa's the husband, he shouldn't be taking that sitting down."

Instead of heightened confusion, a look of understanding came across Towa's face, and she brought a hand to her, a similar look coming across Mira's expression as well, him closing his eyes and sighing.

T.P. looked quizzically at the duo before him, "What's wrong? Why do you guys look like that?"

"It was bound to happen again." Mira spoke first, as though to bring solace to his wife.

"It's starting to get so annoying we might as well wear a name tag at this point." Towa voiced her own grievance.

"What?" T.P. asked.

"He thinks I'm Mira," she pointed to herself, then to Mira, "And he's Towa."

"Why do you guys look so tired of it then? Has this happened before?"

"Several times. It was funny the first few times, but this is the twelfth time it's happened." Towa explained, her facepalming again out of agitation before looking at Dumplin, "Do you understand now? I'm Towa, he's Mira."

"You're Towa?"

"Yes."

"Why? Mira sounds like the more girlish name."

T.P. gave Dumplin's words a moment of thought, and realized that this held true in his own opinion.

"According to what language?" Towa spoke with a sudden note of anger, eyeing Dumplin angrily, "It can't be Spanish, because both "Towa" and "Mira" can pass for girls names. It can't be English, because barely any popular names end with an "a" in English. It can't be Nordic, because there were barely any men with "Towa" in their name for hundreds of years, and that's including those who had it as their middle names. So by what language is "Mira" a more feminine name than "Towa"? Please. Enlighten me, oh so sexist gray matter!"

There came a moment of silence.

"I see it's become a sore subject." T.P.'s voice broke the silence.

"Yes!" Towa yelled, T.P. flinching slightly under her yell, "You try getting over the fact that everyone keeps calling you the man in the relationship without that happening!"

Mira uncrossed his arms, placing a firm, gentle grasp on Towa's shoulder, "Towa, it's fine. You aren't any less effeminate because of your name."

Towa relaxed under Mira's touch and words, yet still sighed, "Your heart's in the right place, but the delivery is sub-par."

"How is it sub-par?"

"You said "effeminate"." She glared up at Mira, "That's a word men use to call other men "girly", as if it's a bad thing. If you said "feminine" then it'd be fine, but you said "effeminate" instead."

Mira sighed, "I'm sorry then."

"That doesn't make it better. You've effectively made my mood worse Mira."

Hearing his wife's tone, Mira's physical response was a reflex.

His hand, still pressed against Towa's shoulder, moved to her neck, reaching its side before rubbing it lightly.

The effect was not obvious at first; Towa's glare shifted to a look of surprise, then to a look of forced restraint.

The rubbing became more erratic, Mira's hand moving slowly, then quickly, then at a speed that was a midpoint of the two, and the man randomized the speed with a straight face.

Towa's lips twitched into a forced curl, then into a smile that she was gradually failing to suppress, speaking all the while, "Mira, _stop_, this isn't the time for..."

Then she laughed, a simple, honest laugh, devoid of any malevolence or mocking, as Mira continued to tickle her.

"Mira, _stop_! I'm calm now!" Towa begged him to st

"I don't believe that." Mira kept doing it, and Towa started leaning against Mira, him wrapping an arm around her to keep her from falling, his tickling unceasing.

When she finally convinced him to stop, Towa tried to regain her old composure, only to notice T.P. holding his hand over his eyes, him making auditory sounds and sniffles.

"Are you crying?" Towa asked incredulously.

"Yes." T.P. said, looking at her, "It warms to heart to know even heartless demons like you two aren't pure evil..."

"I'm not sure whether I should be offended or happy at that comment."

"I'd rather you be offended. You just tried to kill my best friend again after all." He said this as he wiped his face off with his sleeve.

She paused in her surprise.

"Okay." Towa said slowly.

T.P. flew to where the Scroll was, picking it up and opening it, revealing Trunks, whose expression turned into a smile, him no longer a ghost.

"Are you okay Trunks?" T.P. asked, to be certain.

"As good as possible. Are you alright?" Trunks asked, his expression worried.

"Yes. Still good enough to fight." T.P. responded.

"Alright. Try coming back."

T.P.'s expression became cautious then.

He turned to look at Dumplin, eyes wary of him.

"Yes, you have to bring him back." Trunks said after reading between the lines.

"Okay..." T.P. turned fully towards Dumplin, "Hey, it's time we go. This smoke's starting to get to me."

"Okay." Dumplin spoke, him surprisingly obedient as he strutted over to T.P.'s side.

T.P. shook off his surprise despite himself, closing the scroll and holding it out to him, "Imagine the Time Nest when I say three. Got it?"

Dumplin nodded.

T.P. looked over at Towa and Mira, "I know this won't be the last time, but I will kill you if need be. I hope you understand that."

Mira looked at him, and the trace of a smirk could be seen in the demon's expression, "We will see," Towa grasped his arm, "Time Patroller."

With that they disappeared.

"Red, I have a confession to make."

T.P. looked down at Dumplin, "What is it?"

"I think... I'm in love."

T.P. stared at him for a long time, then closed his eyes, his tolerance for Dumplin nonexistent, him breathing in deeply through his nose before speaking, "One, two, three."

He was covered in light that second, and when he opened his eyes, he was back inside the Time Nest.

Looking over to find Trunks there, T.P. smiled, "I'm glad to see you're alright."

"Yes, thanks to you." Trunks responded, with a smile of his own, a hand on his hip.

"I need to find her again..."

T.P. looked back at Dumplin, eyes widened when he saw that his lidless eyes had never been lidless at all, his eyes being closed at that moment.

There was a calm smile playing at his lips now, and while it would usually creep T.P. out, the young man cared nothing for the Majin's antics, pulling the Scroll away from him, turning away from him, "Good luck doing that. Maybe when you do find a place where she is you'll be doing more than making everything worse."

He walked to Trunks' side, his cold tone returning to its usual light hearted one again, "Where's the other change? Now that one's fixed, I want to fix the other one so I can get it over with."

"Alright. You'd be helping the three candidates I sent there a lot if you went there now."

"Candidates?" T.P. asked, looking curiously up at him.

"They were the only three patrollers I could send, since they were looking for me and found me here first."

"I see. How much progress have they achieved so far?"

"They're managing to fend off an army of Cooler robots right now, but they're starting to get overwhelmed." Trunks handed T.P. the Scroll, him taking it and gazing at its dark aura, "Be careful. Even if you are extremely powerful, numbers do make a difference eventually."

"Right." He lifted the Scroll up, imagining Planet Namek in his mind's eye, light consuming him.

* * *

**A/N: **I should probably mention the fact that these choices will actually have no real implications on the storyline other than to change the difficulty of some battles characters face.

If I had to compare it to something, it'd probably be like the way a person can choose between the "Legend" and "Hero" routes for the game Naruto Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, which has basically the same concept as what I'm trying to explain.

For these choice chapters, the overall story isn't altered to too great an extent, but there's only a massive difference in the powers in play at that time.

Hopefully I can show it to you better in the coming chapters.


	9. Save Gohan! Destroy the Star!

There was a moment of silence before T.P. made his decision.

What was to say Dumplin wouldn't actually do what he was supposed to do?

His eyes narrowed slightly, before closing completely, thinking about the weight of the decision he was making.

Trunks was much too important to him to risk letting someone toy with his existence, T.P. knew this to be true.

Yet what was to say there wouldn't be any type of positive side effects if T.P. let Dumplin, at the very least, try to fix this problem?

Of course Dumplin wasn't his image of someone who could be trusted, but at the same time, was it a good idea to constantly belittle him for his past sins and mistakes?

There came the memory of T.P.'s first attempt at assisting Trunks with choosing Time Patrol candidates to join, and then his attempt at doing it alone, ultimately causing the disaster that was Dumplin mutilating the Time Patrol.

He always felt sorry for what he'd caused in those times, and he naturally wished he could fix his mistakes.

Was it possible Dumplin was trying to compensate for what he'd done in the past, by doing this?

It wasn't exactly a secret that only a day after he first appeared in the Time Nest that most of the Time Patrol held a strong antipathy for him, if T.P. were to put it lightly.

If that had been his reason for doing it, who was T.P. to stop Dumplin from this form of redemption, when the Saiyan himself wanted nothing different?

Even as he looked away from the Scroll Dumplin had entered, T.P. felt it in his bones that he might have been giving Dumplin too much credit.

But, he reasoned, no one knew exactly what was going on in the Majin's head.

He could've been giving Dumplin less credit for his intentions for all he knew.

Trunks had noticed his look, and the swordsman spoke with a hidden note of urgency, "T.P., please don't tell you're actually..."

He couldn't even finish the thought.

T.P. closed his eyes, his voice sounding much less worried than he inwardly felt.

"I am Trunks. I know it's probably a bad idea, but right now, I need to know something."

"But I can't risk him making things worse than what they already are!"

"I don't want to risk it either Trunks." T.P. replied.

"Then you need to go now! We can't waste any more time!"

"Trunks, I have to do this. If it turns out that Dumplin actually is out to help you, I have to let him. Otherwise, I won't ever be able to trust him at all."

"Why is that important?!" Trunks yelled, clenching his fists, "What else do you need to know you can't trust him with something like this?"

"If he doesn't do anything, then that'll be all I need." T.P. turned back to face Trunks, his gaze lowered somewhat, "If he screws this up, I know I won't be able to trust him with anything."

Trunks blinked.

"You're gambling that on this?"

"Yes. If I keep following him now, then how else can I prove to myself that I can trust someone? For all we know, he could be trying to make amends for what he's done to us."

"But T.P..."

"Tell me if he's not doing anything." T.P. scooped up the Scroll Dumplin had entered, opening it and bringing up the image of the change, kneeling down and setting it at the ground, at Trunks' feet.

"I'll fix it myself if he doesn't do anything."

"How do you know you'll make it in time?" Trunks questioned, and T.P. looked up at him.

"If it turns out that I don't make it, I'll kill him." T.P. said, eyes narrowed.

He stood up with that, running back towards the other glowing Scroll and taking it up in his hands, him entering it in a flash of light.

When he reappeared on Namek, T.P. looked up into the sky, finding many robots flying through the air, the nets connected to their hands withholding Namekians.

T.P. narrowed his eyes, then looked behind himself, finding several large robots in a group, making a crowd of themselves around a space, many of them hovering in the air while watching it.

"It'll be over there." He said to himself.

He flew forward when he saw a metal humanoid shape fall towards the space, glowing darkly as he descended, it gazing down at the half-Saiyan and Namekian.

Gohan looked around himself, him being surrounded by the large robots that stood at least four times his height and bulk, narrowing his eyes.

"Gohan, do you want me to use Binary Fission?" Dende asked, the grimness of the situation not lost on him.

The boy dared a look back at his friend, shaking his head, "We don't know what'll happen if you do that." There wouldn't be any sure chance that doing that would have good results, Gohan thought as he looked back at the robots around him. "It'll be fine. I'll protect you."

"That'll be easier said than done." A new voice said above him.

Gohan's eyes widened at the voice, him looking up, him seeing a distinctive shape among the robots that blocked every possible route of exit for them.

Above him was Cooler, grinning down at him.

"What?" He gasped in disbelief, then yelled, "How are you still alive?"

The man didn't seem to feel the need to answer.

He only flew down with a speed that Gohan couldn't track, there being a metal mass before him in a split second, the boy barely registering the fist that had been thrust into his stomach.

His eyes widened, his ability to breathe stopping, before he crumpled down onto the ground, him unable to respond.

Cooler looked up from Gohan, gazing at Dende, who gave a frightened stare at him.

One second, the man was lifting a finger towards him.

The next, a foot slammed down on Cooler's raised hand, it and his forearm breaking off and being crushed under T.P.'s left foot.

He roughly pushed his palm against Cooler's cold torso, T.P. not caring for the being's surprised expression before he unleashed a giant wave of energy onto him.

Cooler's entire body dissipated due to the energy wave's radius, several of the large robots being destroyed behind him, revealing a path out of the horde of robots there.

T.P. looked at the Namekian behind him, Dende's wide eyed expression relaxing at the sight of him.

"I-It's you!" He said, hope returning to the boy's psyche.

It was the man who fought the monster with Gohan the last time it appeared, Dende thought.

He gave a warm smile to Dende, "I'm sorry that I couldn't help sooner. Hopefully things will be different for now."

Dende ran to Gohan's side, kneeling down before pushing his hands towards the boy, a glow covering him as he healed him.

The second he started healing Gohan, the robots started closing in on them, and T.P. scowled, closing the distance between himself and the closest robot, grabbing his arm and swinging him around, it becoming a makeshift bat as it slammed into each one of the Cyclopian Guards that each went in to attack him.

He did a full 360 degree spin before letting go, the robots becoming layers attached to each other as they flew up in the air, a ball of blue energy forming in T.P.'s hand before it launched itself towards the ball of robots.

The resulting explosion only took a split second of T.P.'s attention, the man ducking under the lunge of one of the Cyclopian Guard before jumping back up, punching it in its center of gravity, this part of its body being blown away.

T.P. started speaking when he'd done this.

"Trunks, what's going on with Dumplin?"

"He's fighting." Trunks said this with a noteworthy edge in his voice.

"What do you mean by that?" T.P. levitated in the air, spinning around and meeting the grabbing hand of a Guard with his knee, it shattering upon impact.

"As soon as you left, three new recruits came by and asked if they could help when they saw me. I told them to go into the timeline Dumplin went inside of, and when they started fighting, he started fighting."

"He wasn't fighting before that?" T.P. half-yelled in shock, a pair of ams bear hugging him from behind making the man scowl before he released a burst of energy, an orb blowing the robot holding him into nonexistence.

"No, but they seem to be handling the situation well so far. Can I assume you know what you're doing in there?"

"After looking at this timeline for hours I know it well enough." T.P. said this, the wording making him realize how confusing this would sound to anyone who didn't know that a Scroll allowed people to see multiple things in only a few seconds' time.

Trunks seemed to understand nonetheless.

"Alright. I'll leave this to you then. If things go from bad to worse, then I'll send reenforcements in to help you."

"Understood."

T.P. grasped the elbows of a Cyclopian Guard that lunged at him, his fingers squeezing them so roughly that they made dents in the armor.

With a grunt, he swung the Guard up into the air, raising his left palm up to aim at it, several balls of ki shooting themselves up, the first one hitting the Guard in its torso, causing a small explosion, others detracting from the same path, falling towards the other Guards and exploding upon impact, the following explosions larger than the first, some of the other robots caught up in the explosions or otherwise being blown away.

T.P. continued to keep the balls of ki flowing through his left arm, the sky soon raining the remains of destroyed robots, lifting his other palm up and shooting the surrouding robots on the ground away from him.

When there came a sudden shout from behind him, T.P. lowered both of his hands, whipping himself around and seeing that Dende was on his back then, a nasty bruise on his cheek from a Guard kicking him, Gohan being carried away by another Guard, him still unconscious.

"Gohan!" Dende yelled when he realized what had happened, rushing himself to stand back up, him about to try flying after his friend but being stopped by the Cyclopian Guard that towered over him.

Dende clenched his fists, scowling around himself, before he suddenly heard the sound of a sword cutting through metal, the boy sensing several waves of ki emitting from the source of the slashing sounds.

A moment later, Dende's eyes widened as a man forced his way through to the center of the Cyclopian Guards, him holding his sword in his right hand while gazing at Dende.

"Tapion!"

"Dende, what's happening?" Tapion looked behind him, and he swung his sword around while spinning, cutting through a Guard's body, him jumping back and taking a defensive position next to Dende, speaking without looking at him, "Where are all the others?"

"They were kidnapped by these things." Dende looked around himself, at the Guard, "I don't know where they're taking them."

"It's fine. I'm glad I was able to get to you in time. I need both of you to get down though." Tapion narrowed his eyes.

"Why?" Dende glanced over at the red haired man who wore a broken scouter, him complying with Tapion's words and crouching down after sending a wave of energy through several Guards who tried to attack him.

"Just do it." Tapion raised his sword to point to his right while keeping his arm straight, channeling energy into it, glancing back at Dende, "I don't want you getting hurt."

Dende blinked, but nodded, getting down on his hands and knees before Tapion returned his attention to the Guards around him.

Seeing his moment of stillness, many more attempted to close in on him.

Tapion swung his sword through the air several times, first horizontally to his left, then diagonally in an upwards motion to his right, then diagonally in a downwards motion to his left, at a 45 degree angle, his wrist touching his waist, gripping the hilt of his sword with both hands and holding it on level to be horizontal, before swinging it around himself, spinning to his face the opposite direction, swinging to his horizontal right, swinging diagonally to his left, this time in a downward motion, before giving two more diagonal swings, the first being a diagonal swing to his right, before he moved his arm and swung down again in a horizontally right motion.

All of these motions were done in an instant.

One second, the robots were charging in towards the three, and the next, they were sliced through, cut into halves, fourths, or more, the entire army's worth of Cyclopian Guards that filled the sky and stood on the ground breaking apart.

Tapion looked back at Dende and T.P., speaking to them, as light streamed back into their space, due to the robots that blocked it no longer being whole and raining down, "You can stand back up now. I killed all of them."

T.P. pushed himself up to his feet, turning around as Dende stood up, eyes wide.

"How are you this powerful?" Dende asked the swordsman in front of him.

"I wasn't chosen to be the one to ensure Hirudegarn never destroyed the universe for nothing." Tapion responded, looking out of the new field of robot remains and narrowing his eyes, "But I'm not sure our fight is over yet."

"What?" Dende followed his gaze.

His eyes could scarcely make out the image of there being several Cooler shaped forms on the rock formation ahead of them.

All of them had a purplish glow surrounding them, and they gazed at them with a broad smile.

"You're incredibly powerful." One said, loud enough for them to hear, "I'd like to take you with me."

Tapion gripped his sword tightly, eyes narrowing, lifting his blade up to point at them, "Let's see you try."

The Coolers jumped down from their standing place, sliding down from the top of the rock formation.

"What?" Dende blinked, not believing his eyes.

Countless Coolers were sliding down the formation, each one having a dark aura covering them, wave after wave coming down to the ground.

"How are there so many?"

As T.P. gazed at the army standing before him, he spoke lowly, "Trunks, I think it's about time you sent in the reenforcements."

Within the Time Nest, Trunks watched over his partner, eyes narrowed, "I understand. I'll send them in now."

Without waiting for an answer, Trunks stood onto his feet, his body solid again, before turning around to face the three patrollers he'd sent after Dumplin, the Majin himself nowhere to be seen, them all being female.

"Would you three be willing to go on another patrol? My partner needs some help right now with it."

One was a young woman with black hair and white irises, her hair coming down in short wavy locks, wearing a black jacket and a white undershirt, her pants being somewhat baggy.

Another was a slightly younger woman with white hair and gray eyes, her hair reaching the middle of her back, coming down in straight locks and contrasting with her fair skin, her wearing a plain white shirt with the black Capsule Corporation logo on its center, form-fitting blue jeans covering her lower half.

The third carried an air that would make those who saw think she was older than she was, her emerald green hair having brown streaks in them, her irises being a shade resemblind caramel. She wore a blue blouse and a loose grey khakis.

The one with black hair spoke for all three of them, "We'd be willing to. How bad is the situation?"

"With your powers it shouldn't be too big of one. With your help the problem should be solved." Trunks replied.

"Alright then." The girl walked forward, picking up the darkly glowing Scroll by both ends before coming back to the other two girls, showing them the image, "You guys ready?"

"As ready as we're going to be." The girl with white hair replied.

The third girl simply nodded, and with this confirmation, the girl holding the Scroll closed it, holding it out to them, her counting down when all three of them held onto it.

"Three," she spoke while forcing herself to not think of Namek, "Two," and she closed her eyes and tightened her grip on the Scroll, "One."

She let the image of Namek fill her mind, and in the next second, her body was engulfed in light.

* * *

A/N: I get the feeling this choice had a better outcome in terms of how it ended up coming out.

I was able to establish that T.P.'s a male Yandere when it comes to Trunks and was able to showcase his character better.

In addition to that, I'm fairly certain the people who may be upset over Yamcha being more useful as a fighter would be happier with Tapion being in the spotlight, even if it was shorter. Quality over quantity I suppose.

I'm glad I'm finally done with these "multiple-choice" chapters. They tend to be a bit difficult in terms of how to continue semblances of storytelling. Now I can write it less stiffly from my end.

Hopefully the "Gohan-Hirudegarn" story arc goes more smoothly from here on out. And yes, that is the current name of this arc (or Saga, if you want to be DBZ technical).


	10. The Brave Swordsman (Part 1)

_The silence within the room was thick._

_For a long time, Gohan felt nothing, his unconscious state slipping into the depths of a deep sleep._

_As he was left suspended in the air, he dreamt of a simpler time in his life._

_A time before his friends had died by the androids' hands, before his father's death, during a simple summer day._

_He was with his father and his Namekian mentor as they sat around a lake, Gohan's father trying to teach his son to fish._

_Piccolo had been telling the Saiyans about the standard diets of Namekians, and how they only needed water to stay alive._

_As Gohan wondered about the biological make-up Namekians had, Goku turned to look at Piccolo, speaking a question that came to his mind._

_"Wait, Piccolo, if you only need water, then is there any way that you'd like any kind of soup?"_

_Piccolo seemed to want to respond, but then looked slightly stumped._

_The question had simply never come up before._

_Piccolo had never been very picky about anything, making do with what was needed and using that to its fullest potential in order to solve problems._

_When the concept of needing water to survive was brought up, Piccolo only needed to drink it and any problem would likely end quickly._

_For him, the notion of drinking water was simply a means of survival, never a means of enjoyment._

_WIth this realization, Piccolo relented that he had no idea._

_While giving the Namekian the same smile that tended to make most people around him grin just by looking at it, Goku decided for Piccolo that he'd ask his wife to make some soup to test the idea out, whilst the makeshift fishing rod Goku made twitched ever so slightly._

_Feeling this, Goku moved, disappearing one split second with a large splash filling the air, an invisible object having crashed into it, with a large fish being punched out of the water in the next fraction of the second, it sailing through the air and falling on its side._

_Goku reappeared instantly after, holding his fishing rod in the same position as if he never moved, him smiling over at Gohan._

_"You ready to try Gohan?"_

_The boy nodded in his fascination, his father handing over the rod, Gohan holding it steady, waiting in silence as he closed his eyes, sensing out the power levels of the fish, faint as they were, allowing his hands to be as sensitive to the rod's movement as possible._

_There came a small jolt._

_But that wasn't right, Gohan thought._

_There was supposed to be a small jerking motion, not a jolt._

_And even more so, there should have been a feeling in his rod, not on his body._

_Something wasn't right._

_There came another jolt, and it was then that Gohan realized that he was dreaming this up._

_The memory was lucid, yet something was obviously wrong._

_He could feel a type of detachment, as though this wasn't his real body, and at another jolt, the detached feeling lessened._

_By the time the fourth jolt came, Gohan had started to wake up, his eyes clenching tightly before opening, his expression groggy as he woke up._

_It was then that he realized he was hanging in mid-air, limbs suspended as they were grasped by the wires._

_He raised his gaze, eyes widening as he saw the outline of what he thought was someone's head suspended in the air._

_"Cooler?" Gohan asked hesitantly, him not seeing very far ahead of himself._

_"You're finally awake. That's good." Cooler's hollow voice spoke back to him._

_With Cooler's voice there to clarify his suspicions, Gohan's eyes hardened, him struggling against the wires that binded him._

_"Don't resist. It'll be over more quickly that way." Cooler said, and the next second, Gohan's body jerked violently, his body engulfing itself in light._

_The light was blue at first, but then shifted into a golden one, Gohan's screams of agony falling onto two uncaring ears, his struggles against the wires still there but being nulled in effectiveness by the shocks that went through his body._

_His scream reached a new height before it suddenly stopped, his body hanging limply while being suspended in the air._

_Within the place Gohan was inside of, two more people stayed suspended in the air, their bodies as limp as Gohan's, androids #17 and #18 not moving at all as the purple glow from their bodies finally faded, Cooler's already red eyes glowing instead._

* * *

Trunks saw this with a stern expression, his body solid once again.

"Alright, all of you, support Tapion until Cooler leaves him be." He ordered, the four time patrollers who'd entered the Scroll at that point responding with a simple word of affirmation.

T.P. held a fighting stance as he looked at the army of Meta-Coolers as they slid themselves down from their hill, the three female time patrollers who were now with him holding stances of their own, one, with jet black hair and white irises, standing to his right, the other two standing to the immediate left of Tapion, the one who stood closer to Tapion having white hair and gray eyes, the one who stood farthest from the swordsman having green hair with brown streaks in her hair, her eyes brown.

In the middle stood Tapion, his sword drawn out as he gazed at the army of Meta-Coolers, his right hand's grip on the sword tightening.

"All of you, take a step back." He ordered, lifting the hilt of his blade, pointing it to his left, grasping the rest of his hilt with his free hand.

The four patrollers jumped back simultaneously, Tapion breathing in deeply and slowly, concentrating his power into his blade, it glowing brightly for a split second before he sliced it horizontally through the air with all of his strength.

All of the Meta-Coolers who'd reached the ground were cut through from the waist up, them falling over.

There was a moment of silence, before Tapion saw that the cut in half Meta-Coolers recreated their severed bodies, them doubling in number as they stood back on their feet.

Tapion scowled as this realization came to him.

He sheathed his sword, lifting his hand up so his palm pointed towards most of the robots present.

"Brave Cannon." He whispered.

A ball of blue light formed in his hand, wider than Tapion's shoulder span, and it launched itself towards the Meta-Coolers.

Anticipating the attack however, the foremost Meta-Cooler lifted his index finger up, shooting through it with a thin beam.

The second the ball of light dispersed however, the many Meta-Coolers would have a surprise in store for them.

As soon as Tapion had launched his Brave Cannon, all five warriors flew forward at full speed, them flying in a straight line behind the ball as cover before the Meta-Cooler shot through it, at which point, they veered off of their shared course of flight, flying around the dispersing ball of light and attacking them.

The first to attack was the girl with black hair, her touching down on the ground and ducking under a punch a Meta-Cooler sent her way, her left hand whipping up and gripping it tightly, her standing straight up again, sensing the movement of the wind behind her.

She grunted, thrusting her elbow behind herself, it colliding with the knee of a Meta-Cooler, the knee breaking upon impact.

Carried by momentum, the Meta-Cooler couldn't stop itself from still flying forward, and the girl straightened her arm, aiming her palm at the Meta-Cooler's torso.

"Ha!" The girl grunted, a beam of ki bursting out of her hand and engulfing the Meta-Cooler, making its body dissipate from existence.

Once again, she sensed there being movement in the air next to her, and the girl bent her arm once more, thrusting it back and slamming it into the knee of the Meta-Cooler who she held onto, him trying to knee her while she wasn't looking.

Like the last Meta-Cooler, this one's knee broke upon impact, yet the girl wouldn't be able to do anything about a new Meta-Cooler that she had only just noticed flying towards her, her getting a powerful punch to her stomach before she could retaliate.

Her only response to the punch was to grip the Meta-Cooler she faced away from more tightly, her fingers making a dent in it.

Another punch came towards her the next fraction of a second, and without any other course of action in mind, she lifted up her left knee, blocking the punch with it, the impact strong enough that she skidded back somewhat as she stood on one foot.

Hoping to return the favor, the black haired girl narrowed her white eyes, jerking her left knee so that it moved the Meta-Cooler's fist out of her stomach before bending her right leg and jumping up, grunting and swinging her right leg up in a left diagonal direction, the Meta-Cooler being thrown to the ground as her foot slammed into the side of his head.

She levitated a short distance, flipping herself backwards and bringing her knees to be on both sides of the head of the Meta-Cooler she held, releasing his arm in exchange, clasping onto the metal head harshly enough to hold onto him.

It tried to grasp at her, swinging its body around in a bout to throw her off, and she only took advantage of the jerking motion, a beam of ki shooting out of her hand, it becoming a wave as the direction she faced arced by several degrees.

The girl with white hair ducked down to her knee as she dodged the wave, it crashing into many of the surrounding Meta-Coolers, cutting them in half instantly.

She dropped down onto one knee, thrusting a palm into the ground, her sending a pulse of her ki through it, it digging into the ground before spreading beneath her feet.

There came a split second of stillness, and in the next moment, there was a wave of energy shooting up in a fixed perimeter around her, making a wall of energy form that went high into the air, it being thick enough to blow several of the severed Meta-Coolers into the sky.

As they were blown up into the air, the girl, feeling the ground beneath her start falling, due to gravity's effects on the foothold she had turned the it into, launched herself into the air with a kick to it, the kick having just the right amount of strength to put her in the relative center of the Meta-Coolers, the foothold blowing up dust as her energy gathered within and around her body as she closed her eyes.

A glow formed around her as she crossed her forearms in an "X" pattern, bending her knees, the built up energy reaching the peak she needed for this attack.

With a grunt, she uncrossed her arms, thrusting her hands as far apart as possible, her legs straightening in a similar fashion.

A dome of bright yellow energy burst from her body, taking the shape of a rapidly growing dome, and the remains of the Meta-Coolers disintergrated upon contact, the same going for whatever parts of the Meta-Coolers that came into contact with it.

Her comrades looked in her direction as she breathed, her body descending as she lost her grip of her bearings for a moment.

T.P. reflexively started to fly towards her, but someone else moved faster than he did, the girl with long green hair and brown streaks reaching her ally's side and gracefully catching her in a bridal style.

The girl who fallen opened her closed eyes and met the green haired girl's brown eyes.

"Thanks Terra." She smiled.

"Think nothing of it Orora." Terra replied, the crashing of metal against something hard filling both girls' ears.

Terra looked behind herself, seeing that T.P. had followed her in hopes to help Orora.

Due to a Meta-Cooler following suit however, T.P. was forced to take action when it grabbed his ankle, the red-haired Saiyan replying as kindly as he could with a kick to its face.

The impact shattered its facial structure, yet even without its face, the Meta-Cooler perservered, grabbing T.P. by his other ankle and pushing it out of his face, it reforming itself in a second, into a smile.

While deepening his grips on the Saiyan's legs, the Meta-Cooler's eyes glowed for a short moment, before it shot T.P.'s forehead with an eye beam.

He threw his head back from how searing hot the attack felt on his skin, in an effort to alleviate the pain it caused him, and taking advantage of his lost concentration, the Meta-Cooler swung T.P. towards the ground with all his might, T.P.'s body making a small crater in the ground when his body slammed down on it.

The robotic being raised his hand towards him, a ball of energy forming, only for the girl with black hair to shift herself backwards, in a very abrupt manner, with the head of the Meta-Cooler still clapsed tightly between her knees, and touched down on the ground with her outstretched hands, her swinging the Meta-Cooler off of his feet with a swing to the lower half of her body, throwing him harshly towards the Meta-Cooler aiming to shoot its ball of energy towards T.P.'s fallen body, doing a back-flip onto her feet as she crouched down for balance, looking behind herself.

The throw held enough force behind it for the Meta-Cooler to fly straight into the other one, the collision of the cloned monstrocities throwing their concentration off for but a second.

In the second it took for them to recover, both T.P. and the black haired patroller moved.

With a scowl, T.P. lifted his right elbow and thrust it into the ground, forcing himself up into a sitting position.

Adding a thrust of his foot into the ground, he flew into the air with a burst of speed that deepened the crater his body had made, the Meta-Cooler aiming his ball of energy at him again.

Seeing this, T.P. made a ball of energy of his own, thrusting his left hand into the gathering energy ball before the Meta-Cooler could do anything.

The two energies collided, yet T.P.'s tore through his enemy's ball and into its palm, boroughing itself into his arm.

As T.P. flew past him, he heard the explosion of the Meta-Cooler as it was consumed in the burst in size his energy ball underwent.

Seconds before the explosion, the patroller who'd distracted the Meta-Coolers had flown up, seeing that the one she'd thrown was flying towards Terra and Orora after recovering, and, in an attempt to distract the Meta-Coolers more, had kicked him into his doppelganger, just as the energy ball T.P. had thrown burst, consuming both of them.

At the sight of the burst of energy, the girl gave a surprised expression, not understanding the reason for the explosion at all.

T.P. descended next to the three patrollers, looking over at Orora, "Are you okay?"

She nodded and smiled, floating up by herself now, "Yes, I'm fine."

"Good." Terra turned around, looking down at the Meta-Coolers on the ground as they surrounded Tapion, lifting up her hand and releasing a thin beam as she aimed it at an arc, anything the beam hit exploding upon contact, half of the Meta-Coolers that surrounded the swordsman being caught up in them.

T.P. looked over at her at this display of power, eyes widened in surprise, Terra meeting his eyes after a moment.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

He didn't say anything for a moment.

"Awesome." He said quietly after a moment.

She smiled lightly at that. "Thank you."

The four looked down as the Meta-Coolers ascended up into the air, all of their bodies glowing a dark purple glow the next second, them all flying off in a fixed direction.

Tapion looked up in surprise at this, then floated up, looking in the direction they flew off towards.

"Where are they going?" He muttered to himself.

"They're going to where Gohan is!" Dende's voice cried, and Tapion looked behind himself at the Namekian.

"They are?" He yelled over to him.

"Yes! We have to hurry!"

"Alright." Tapion watched as Dende flew up to his side, a white aura covering his body.

"Are you ready to go?" Dende asked.

"As ready as I'm going to be." Tapion looked in the direction of the retreating Meta-Coolers, eyes narrowing before he looked up at the four Time Patrol members. "Are you coming with us?"

"Yes." T.P. said before the others could, floating down slightly. "Lead the way."

Tapion nodded, looking down at Dende, "Alright, then let's go then."

Dende nodded, turning before flying forward with a burst of light and speed, Tapion following suit, the patrollers being close behind at a safe distance.

"Is there something more that we have to do?" Orora asked T.P. with a glance, to which he nodded.

"What else do we have to do?"

"Judging by that purple glow those things had on them, I'd say that the changes aren't done being fixed yet."

"What else could go wrong then?" Terra asked.

"A lot of things frankly. We'll find out when we get there." T.P. replied.

Then he realized something else.

"What are you guys' names, while we're flying like this?" He glanced at everyone.

"I'm Orora." The girl with greyish-white hair smiled at him, "This girl with green hair's Terra," she nodded at Terra, who nodded, "And the girl flying next to you is Coahla."

T.P. looked over at the girl with black hair, her looking back at him.

"Kawhala?" He asked curiously.

"Coahla." She corrected him lightly, her enunciating the syllables for him. "CO-AH-LA."

"Okay, sorry about that." T.P. replied, looking forward again. "My name's T.P."

"We know." Terra said bluntly. "You already introduced yourself during the testing."

He smiled lightly.

"Alright, then I can skip the formalities then."

Soon, the group of six caught up to the Meta-Coolers, who had now stopped in front of a colossal metal shape.

As they stopped, Tapion looked down at Dende, "Is this it?"

He nodded at the question, "Gohan's inside. I can sense the others too."

"I see." Tapion reached up, grasping his sword by its hilt. "It'd be best if you went to hide then. I wouldn't want you getting caught up in the crossfire."

Dende nodded, then pointed towards the metal shape, its many tentacle like arms extending everywhere, "My people are near the end of that tendril going into the ocean. Gohan is near the center of it."

"Understood." Tapion watched as Dende fell back, looking down at the Meta-Coolers and speaking to the four patrollers around him. "Would it be alright if we split into groups to find everyone?"

"I'm not sure if I want to." Orora replied, looking at the metal shape with a small chill down her spine. "That thing looks like something out of some weird sci-fi movie."

"We'll have to focus our attention on getting to the Namekians first then. The less casualties the better." Coahla said, looking down at the tendril Dende pointed out to them.

"We'll need to force a way in then." Terra clenched her right hand into a fist, tightening it for a moment, before opening her hand, a bright ball of ki forming and growing there. "Will it be me on offense or you this time Coahla?"

The girl narrowed her eyes, then looked at Terra, "I'll be on offense this time around. You be defense."

Terra's smile at this comment looked several times scarier with the shadow her ball of ki cast on her face, T.P. noted.

"Understood." She threw the ball up into the air, holding her hand up at it, before closing her hand roughly, swinging her raised fist down.

Arrow-like beams of energy rained down on the sky, several of them slamming into the Meta-Coolers near the metal shape, consuming them before they could even tell what had hit them.

The aerial attack blew them down into the water, several of the following ki arrows falling down randomly into the water, only one striking the metal mass, blowing a hole into it.

Tapion looked at her in surprise, T.P. mirroring his expression.

"What are you doing? You could have hurt the Namekians!" He yelled.

"Calm down." Coahla said as she looked at the swordsman. "We can all sense energy, and Terra rarely misses a target. None of them were hurt." She looked down at the hole Terra had made. "How long do you think you can defend?"

"That will depend on whether there are more of those replicas." Terra answered.

"There most likely will." T.P. answered, looking down at the hole Terra put in the Big Gete Star. "How many, I don't know."

"Then I'll hold off as many as I can." Terra looked at Orora now, "Can you help me?"

"Anything to stay out of that giant thing." She answered bitterly.

"It's decided then." Coahla looked at T.P. and Tapion, "Are you guys ready to go?"

"Yes." They responded in unison.

"Let's get moving then." Coahla's body became encased in ki, and she flew down towards the hole, T.P. and Tapion following suit.

When they neared the opening however, countless balls of ki shot up at them from below, each one nearly harmless on their own, but quite painful in severe number.

The three warriors, who were quickly overwhelmed by the ambush, shielded themselves as much as possible from the onslaught.

Several curved beams of ki that originated from behind them shot into the water that concealed the Meta-Coolers that attacked, this seeming to halt their method of attack for a short moment.

Taking advantage of the window of time made available to them, the three flew into hole.

Seeing that her comrades were safely inside of the Big Gete Star, Terra raised her palm to the waters.

"Come out, come out." She said in a soft sing-song voice, a ball of energy forming in her palm.

Upon it launching itself through the air and shooting through the water, the forms of the many Meta-Coolers who were underwater then revealed itself via the ki ball's light, a massive explosion blowing the body of water into oblivion.

The Meta-Coolers all looked shocked at this, as the momentary lack of water revealed to the girl, and simultaneously, both Terra and Orora moved, light forming on both of their bodies as they confronted the replicas.

* * *

Upon landing in the Big Gete Star, T.P. looked behind himself at the sound of a person grunting, accompanied by a fast whirring type of sound.

The sight revealed to him was of a Namekian about to be cut open by a large electric chainsaw.

His reaction was like a reflex, him lifting his hand up and shooting the chainsaw with enough ki to blow it through the air, over the other Namekians' heads, bouncing as it rolled away from everyone.

"Is everyone okay?" T.P. asked loudly.

He only recieved a shocked stare in response from everyone.

"You two go on ahead." Coahla walked past him, giving him a look, "I'll handle getting everyone out of here."

"Are you sure?" T.P. asked.

"Very." Coahla pushed her right hand to her left, then swung it back out to her right, a beam of energy blowing a giant hole into the wall of the Big Gete Star. "Get going before that kid gets into even bigger trouble."

"Alright." Tapion said, running in the opposite direction from the Namekians.

T.P.'s gaze found Hoi there however, and meeting his gaze, the man smiled calmly at him.

T.P. narrowed his eyes at him, but then heard the wail of Gohan's scream.

Turning around, T.P. buried the emotions he felt towards the wizened old man, running after Tapion, him taking flight when he did seconds later.

Hoi's smile dropped at their leaving, but then regained its former strength when he looked at the children, speaking almost jovially, "See? I told you everything would be alright, didn't I?"

By the time Tapion and T.P. reached the source of where the scream had come from, T.P. knew they would already be too late.

When they arrived, they found the child hanging limply, held up by many large wires, the twin androids #17 and #18 in similar positions.

"What have we here? Two more sources of energy?" Cooler's voice spoke to them from the shadows.

Tapion grasped his sword, scowling, "What have you done to Gohan?"

"I needn't tell you." Cooler's voice replied.

Wires were poising themselves towards the duo, as though aiming for a lunge, and without warning, they shot forward, wrapping around T.P.'s limbs and grasping Tapion by the wrist that he used to grab his weapon.

Upon wrapping themselves around their targets, they both felt an extremely painful wave of electricity flow through them, both men's bodies becoming frozen as this happened, them hardly able to scream or move.

Amidst the pain, Tapion felt his strength slowly being drained from him, and realizing this, he closed his eyes, his voice coming out lowly, it becoming a steadily growing roar, before he, with his free hand, gripped the wire holding his wrist.

When his brain confirmed that he indeed held the wire, he tore it into three pieces, one holding his wrist, another held in his fist, and the third falling to the ground, it hastily slithering away like a snake.

Drawing his sword out quickly, Tapion whipped around, four slashes of his sword cutting through the wires draining his comrade's energy.

T.P. felt his mobility return to him, and he looked at Tapion with a grateful smile, Tapion not able to confirm this as he turned, him lunging up into the air and cutting all of the wires above Gohan that clasped around him, T.P. moving forward and catching the unconscious ten year old as he started to fall.

Tapion landed on the ground behind T.P., cutting through the wires that held Gohan's legs, T.P. pulling the wires off of Gohan's body before Cooler's voice chuckled behind them.

"You are all quite persistent. If things could've turned out differently in my battle against that Saiyan boy's father, I'd consider recruiting you."

"I wouldn't dream of being your soldier." Tapion replied, holding his sword tightly.

"Considering the lengths you'd go to protect the Namekians, I could understand that." Cooler said calmly to him.

"Why have you kidnapped them?"

"I believed them to be quite suitable to achieving my goal."

"Your goal?" Tapion replied in disbelief. "What goal could you possibly use them to achieve?"

"I'll say it again, I needn't tell you." Cooler replied.

As though on cue, the ground beneath them started to shake violently, the two men losing their balance in their surprise and falling to their knees.

"Considering I have more than all the pieces ready, I'd say it's time to put away needless things."

Tapion looked up at Cooler, struggling to find his balance, and yelled at him, "There's no point to this! The Namekians are in enough danger as is!"

He blinked when he realized something else was amiss.

From the shadows, Tapion saw two glowing red eyes staring at him, the sound of rumbling meshing with the sounds of gears churning loudly.

Despite the cantankerous nature of the sounds he heard, Tapion heard a voice, Cooler's, he realized, steadily rising in magnitude, soon drowning out the other sounds as the red eyes slowly grew in their width apart from one another, ascending higher and higher in the air.

Tapion's eyes narrowed, and he kicked off the ground, sword in hand, and thrust his free hand forward, a ball of blue ki forming there as he aimed for the center of the red eyes.

The next moment however, Tapion was suddenly kicked forward, his concentration lost for a moment before he turned around, barely able to make out the shape of a Meta-Cooler in the darkness of the room.

Knowing the lack of lighting would be a strong disadvantage to him, Tapion raised his hand up, his Brave Cannon shooting itself up into the roof, bursting through it and letting sunlight wash itself into the room.

Even with the still limited sight that this provided him, Tapion was still surprised at what he saw.

Several Meta-Coolers floated around the room, and like bees in a bee hive, they filled the space they occupied completely.

Whether they had been there from the beginning or had just arrived, Tapion didn't know.

He only looked down at the sound of screams that rivaled Cooler's voice, Tapion realizing #17 and #18 were being pulled somewhere behind him.

Turning around, Tapion's eyes widened as their bodies, covered in wires, were pulled into a much larger Cooler than the rest of the Meta-Coolers, getting entangled into a mesh of wires and machinery turned into what seemed to pass for muscles, disappearing from sight, as the larger Cooler's body grew the same metal skin that all the other Meta-Coolers had, him smiling at Tapion.

Looking up at the sight from the ground, T.P. narrowed his eyes.

Cooler had just fused with the Big Gete Star.

* * *

**A/N: It feels weird to end the chapter like this, but a bit appropriate at the same time.**

**On the one hand I could go about writing this the usual way I do it and have the entire fight written out, or splinter it accordingly to how much of a cliffhanger can be wrung out from it.**

**It feels like my storytelling bone said that enough was enough at this point, so this is the end result.**

* * *

**Extra  
Confrontations of the Time Patrol Squad  
Case #1: The Electric Man (Part 1)**

For the portly man that sat on the rooftop that had been turned into a makeshift living area, he was unsure of what to say as the young man before him repeated his words to him.

"My name is Trunks. I came here on business to speak with your friend Cole MacGrath." Trunks said with a much more happy expression than was normal for him.

"I heard you the first time." Zeke replied in a shocked tone. "What I can't understand is why you want to talk to Cole."

Trunks opened the vanilla folder in his hands as he stood next to the television owned by the man sitting across from him, his appearance like that of Elvis Presley, in all things except for his golden sunglasses and clothes.

Reading it, Trunks looked back up at the man, whose name was Zeke Jedediah Dunbar from the information the folder said, and tried to elaborate himself as best as he could.

"I'm here to talk to Mr. MacGrath about his experience with a man named Kessler."

Behind his sunglasses, Zeke narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "What group are you from?"

"If you're wondering about which organization I answer to, you don't have to worry." Trunks closed his eyes. "But I bet that doesn't help my case at all, does it?"

"No." Zeke replied bluntly. "In fact, that just makes me not want to trust you more!"

"That's understandable." Trunks said coolly. "Considering the things you've been through, distrusting me isn't surprising."

"What do you mean? What do you know about the things I've been through?"

"Well, for starters," Trunks held his hip, "Ever since this city fell into quarantine, your friend has constantly been out and about using his powers as he and the rest of the city needs. You tried to help, but you never felt very adequate for doing so. You thought you could get powers like Cole did, but then after that..."

Trunks deliberately trailed off, knowing the subject was a sore one.

"What the heck are you? Some kind of Conduit?"

"Of a kind." Trunks answered honestly.

In this world, a Conduit was a person who had genetically given supernatural powers, whether dormant or active, he thought to himself.

Since, barring the abilities ki brought him, he was part Saiyan, this described him rather well.

"Though I honestly don't want to fight against you or Cole. I'm only here on business concerning Kessler."

"What kind of business?"

"Concerning his usage of time travel. If my information is correct, then he digressed details of it before his death to Cole."

"How do you know all this stuff?"

"Because time travel is in my job description. I need to know all there is to know about it to prevent it happening again."

Zeke stared at him for a moment, trying to see if Trunks was truly serious, and when he realized the swordsman indeed was, sighed.

"Alright, but you'll have to explain this to Cole when he gets back." Zeke said while rubbing his forehead.

"That's fine." Trunks started walking over to the edge of the roof, "I'll bring food for the both of you then."

He disappeared in a burst of light that had many pieces of a clock churning inside of them.


	11. The Brave Swordsman (Part 2)

Tapion held his sword tightly, eyes narrowed at the immense form of Cooler in front of him.

"So this is what you wanted? A bigger clone of yourself?" Tapion yelled at him.

Cooler's face reflected amusement at the swordsman's words.

"This body I have currently is much more than a larger version of my other selves. You will learn the difference soon."

As he said this, the rumbling within the Big Gete Star stopped, and while still on the ground, T.P. hugged Gohan's limp body to his own once he regained his balance.

Looking up at Tapion, T.P. heard the man speak loudly without turning to look back at him, "Take Gohan! Leave this to me!"

"Are you sure?" T.P. yelled in response, eying the Meta-Coolers around him warily.

"I can handle this on my own. Right now, Gohan needs help more than me. Focus on him."

T.P. didn't respond for a moment, then nodded silently.

He concentrated his ki into his right palm, him swinging it to his right with a grunt, a large beam shooting out from his palm.

It engulfed many Meta-Coolers before striking the wall, T.P. kicking himself awkwardly in his right direction before he flew, hugging Gohan's body to his as he sped out of the Big Gete Star, him flying several meters in a couple of seconds, the abrupt contrast of the light of the outside world compared to the interior of the Big Gete Star stinging his eyes but him not caring, forcing his eyes to stay open whilst spinning himself around so that he was facing the sky before craning his head forward, his chin nearly touching his upper chest.

He stopped flying, adjusting himself so that he was floating upright, looking at the giant metal mass, the entrance he'd made allowing him to hear the screech of metal being cut, it likened to the sound of someone scraping their nails horrifically on a chalkboard, from the inside.

Taking another moment to decide whether to leave or stay, he closed his eyes, shaking his head of the thoughts of the latter.

The timeline seemed to be headed in the right way to be fixed, he thought.

There was nothing more he could do.

Sighing softly to himself as he designated himself with the task of leaving the battle to Tapion, T.P. looked around himself, realizing there was relative silence other than the sounds of Tapion fighting from inside the Big Gete Star.

But that wasn't right, he thought, his eyes widening in a realization that turned into a worry.

What had happened to the others, for them to stop fighting?

His eyes tensed in worry, wondering if the Meta-Coolers had overwhelmed his partners for this mission.

Was it possible?

Could those three really be overwhelmed by people like them?

Mentally hoping that they were all okay, he willed blue energy to form around his and Gohan's bodies like a shield, him moving with a burst of speed to his left as he flew around the Big Gete Star.

For a moment, his eyes scanned his surroundings, him not finding Terra giving the aerial attacks she'd been giving for the past several minutes.

His eyes narrowed deeply.

He wouldn't let anyone else fall victim to Towa's tricks.

A new burst of speed enabled him to fly faster, the wind being swatted off by his shield of ki as he sped forward, almost desperately.

Then he found them.

Just below him, his other Time Patrol comrades stood among the Namekian survivors at that time.

His expression relaxed into that of relief, and he flew down towards them, his head being closer to the ground than his feet, only for him to pull himself backwards at the last second, him landing flat on his feet with a low clap.

As he approached them, they were already looking over at him, many able to see T.P. carrying Gohan's body.

Seeing his unconscious state, many of the Namekians, most of which sitting down in a hushed group before seeing the two, rushed to rise to their feet, running over to see what had happened to their friend, T.P. setting Gohan down and stepping back to give him space, his gaze turning back to behind himself, looking up at the Big Gete Star in its stillness.

Behind T.P., as Dende ran to Gohan's side, his eyes widened in horror at the fact that he couldn't sense any of his energy.

Acting on a reflex, Dende pushed his hands forward and tried to heal him, Coahla, who walked behind him, looking over his shoulder at these actions.

Seeing the boy's efforts, the young woman walked to the boy's side, watching Gohan for a moment for moment more before looking up at T.P. with a questioning gaze.

When he felt her eyes staring into his head, he looked back and returned her look, and she mouthed a question to him.

"Can I give Gohan some of my energy?"

T.P.'s looked down at Gohan, then nodded wordlessly.

Coahla looked back at the form of Dende, him gradually starting to tremble at the realization that his healing wasn't helping Gohan's strength to grow back again.

She crouched down, taking a careful knee next to him, her hand grasping his shoulder supportively, Dende looking over at her, Coahla gaze fixated on Gohan despite this.

"Your healing won't work this time. Let me try something." Coahla said with a half-glance to the boy who sat to her immediate left, her eyes looking back down at Gohan as her right hand placed itself on his chest, his irregular heartbeat being the first thing she noticed.

Closing her eyes, breathing in, through her nose, and out, through her mouth, slowly, Coahla allowed her energy to flow into Gohan's body as her muscles relaxed, her hand giving off a faint golden glow as Gohan's entire body gave a faint blue one to contrast.

After channeling her energy slowly into the boy's body for a moment, Coahla stopped with a breath out of her mouth, opening her white eyes when she felt Gohan's heartbeat reach a regular pace again.

Looking fully over at Dende, she nodded slightly, giving a small encouraging smile, "Now try healing him."

Dende looked hesitant, but he nodded as well, turning his attention back to Gohan and allowing his hands to adopt a glow of their own as he healed Gohan's body, relief flooding through his body as he sensed Gohan's energy rising up again the more he healed him.

He looked back up at her, "Thank you."

"It's no problem." Coahla pressed her right hand into her corresponding knee, applying pressure to it as Dende returned his attention to his friend, Coahla's smile dropping as she reached her feet, her looking at T.P., who'd returned his attention to the Big Gete Star, and walked around the group of crouched Namekians, going to the red-head's side and gazing at his pensive expression.

"Is there anything else we need to be doing right now?" She asked him.

"So far, no. It seems as though everything is going to go as it originally did before."

"What exactly is supposed to happen now then?" Coahla looked at the metal mass as she asked this.

"If I remember right," T.P.'s gaze turned upwards, above the Big Gete Star, a shadow seeming to come over them both as they looked at the source of sudden darkness simultaneously, "THAT's supposed to happen."

A swirl of black mist formed in the sky then, and those present froze up at the sight, the massive form of Hirudegarn solidifying itself above the Big Gete Star, him no longer a simple pair of legs, but a full bodied, four limbed monstrosity.

"Huh." Cohala crossed her arms, her speaking in a still calm voice despite the power she felt emitting from the monster before her. "Can I assume that's bad?"

"Yeah." T.P. replied, watching the monster descending on the Big Gete Star, his voice as toneless as Coahla's. "Very."

Hirudegarn landed on the side of the Star, its landing causing the ground to shake under everyone's feet.

"Is there anything we're supposed to be doing now?"

T.P. assumed the thinker's position as Hirudegarn's hands pierced the top of the Star's layers, ripping a giant chunk of it off of it and throwing it away.

"Between you and your partners, which one has the stronger ki control?"

"That would be myself and Terra. Why do you ask?" asked Coahla as she looked at T.P. in curiosity.

Hirudegarn roared menacingly in her immediate foreground, there seeming to be screams and the sounds of ki blasts being thrown at its massive body, Meta-Coolers flying up at Hirudegarn and desperately attempting to attack him, the blows they gave having no avail.

"Because we need to get two people out of that giant thing over there."

"That thing with a skull for a face?" Coahla asked, looking at Hirudegarn.

Her tone suggested she had no intention of going towards there.

"No. That thing that's a little smaller than that skull one." T.P. pointed out the form of the Meta-Cooler that jumped out of the Big Gete Star, it very clearly visible even from the distance between it and them, it landing in the lake in from of them.

"Oh. That one." Coahla uncrossed her arms, her tone much more even then. "Alright. Just tell us where we get the people and we'll get to work."

"They're lodged somewhere in these two areas." T.P. pressed his index fingers on both of the imaginary lines that bisected the left and right sides of his body, pushing them on his chest, under his neck bone.

"Alright." Coahla looked behind herself, "Terra!"

At the sound of black haired girl calling her name, the woman with green hair looked up from her sitting position, jumping up to her feet, before flying forward, to her side.

"Yes Coahla?" Terra asked.

"Please repeat for her." Coahla looked at T.P. as she said this, Terra looking at the man as Coahla started walking forward, her taking a few steps before she reached the lake, floating an inch above it as T.P. explained what Terra had to do.

She sped forward as Hirudegarn's roar split through the air, her moving as though in sync with it, her hands, spread as far apart as possible, filling themselves with a bright golden glow as she went.

At the last second, Coahla swung her wrists together despite the wind blowing her arms back, the balls of energy becoming one as it slammed into the giant Meta-Cooler's right shoulder blade, it burning through the Meta-Cooler's back, only stopping when her fingertips scraped against the edge of the Meta-Cooler's body, Coahla absorbing the energy she'd released into the ball.

Seeing the hole she'd made, Coahla looked up, seeing the back of Android 17, him audibly breathing as air filled the hole she made.

"Hey there." Coahla smirked, "Let's get you out of here."

She breathed in quickly, then grunted lowly under her throat as her muscles bulged ever so slightly, her white eyes becoming teal and her black hair spiky and gold.

Seeing the wound she'd made repairing itself, Coahla threw a ball of ki into the area above her and #17's head with her right hand, blowing Cooler's shoulder blade completely away, before moving again, forcing her arms halfway under #17's shoulders, locking her elbows under them as she yanked him upwards with some difficulty, her narrowed eyes finding that metal tendrils clung to his limbs, her forcibly pulling him up despite this.

"Come on." She said to him, wrapping her left forearm around #17's chest and stuffing her fingers between #17's arm pit and her elbow.

Holding him up this way, her internal clock ticked as she freed her right elbow and utilized her now free hand to shoot off the tendrils getting in her way, four beams breaking off the tendrils before #17's body was freed completely.

After wrapping her free arm around #17's upper ribcage, Coahla flew back towards the shore with a burst of golden speed, her barely able to notice Terra flying past her because she was rushing so much, the young woman hitting the ground while holding #17 snugly in her arms, having fallen on her back with her on top of him.

She breathed a small sigh, closing her eyes and breathing whilst letting her muscles relax, her gold spiky hair reverting to normal, Coahla opening her eyes to reveal them to be white once more.

A moment later, two pairs of feet fell against the ground next to her, and Coahla turned her gaze to look up to her left, finding Terra hugging #18 to her body as she slowly lowered herself and the blonde to the ground.

She lowered herself to her knees, then held onto her gently as she laid #18 on her back.

When this was accomplished, Orora, with a worried expression, would finish walking to Coahla's side, looking down at her while bending down, her seeing Coahla's face as though it were upside down, hands grasping her legs.

"Are you alright?" She asked the ebony-haired girl.

"I'm fine. Just anxious not to go past my time limit." Coahla laid her head flat on the ground, closing her eyes.

"Is there anything else we need to do here?" Terra asked someone Coahla couldn't see due to her closed eyelids.

Opening her eyes, Coahla would look to find T.P. there as well, standing next to Terra and #18.

"At this distance, I doubt we'll need to do anything from here on out." T.P. answered honestly, looking over at the Big Gete Star once more.

In the distance, a heavily injured Tapion flew hurriedly out of the Big Gete Star, looking at the form of Hirudegarn and scowling.

As its tail swiped at the Star and crashed into it, the force made it shatter upon impact, Meta-Coolers flying out of the Star and throwing attacks at it, it only roaring at them with so much ferocity that they were blown back.

Its tail would pull itself out of the star, but instead of attacking the Meta-Coolers, it would only point its tail at them, its massive point opening up.

Realizing what it was doing, Tapion's eyes widened before he dashed away, flying with all of his speed to gain distance between himself and Hirudegarn, landing on land a large distance away.

Gazing up at the tail, he watched as a powerful wind seemed to pull the Meta-Coolers towards the hole, them trying vainly to fly away but it being too late, their bodies flying into Hirudegarn's tail to their protests, him sucking up the majority of the Meta-Coolers within the Big Gete Star, its tail doing this like a vacuum cleaner sucks up dirt.

Cooler watched in horror at this, scowling before lunging forward, going out of the water and delivering a massive fist to Hirudegarn chest.

It staggered backwards, then roared at him, responding with a fist of his own to the center of Cooler's chest, its right fist punching through his body.

Cooler gave a scowl at this, but persevered nonetheless, tendrils reaching forward from his body and wrapping themselves tightly around Hirudegarn's arm, a shock running through the monster's body as he tried draining its energy.

In what he couldn't tell was pain or anger, Hirudegarn roared once more while trying to pull his arm out, it attempting to swat at Cooler's head with its free hand, Cooler catching the arm with his right hand, his eyes narrowing with his first sign of pain at his wrist bending back at an unnatural angle when the force behind the swing proved too much for even his body structure to handle.

Thankfully, his wrist fixed itself and healed, and Cooler continued attempting to drain Hirudegarn of his energy, holding his arm with increasing difficulty.

Then, to his surprise, Hirudegarn's body dissipated into a black mist, and then nothing, the tendrils and hand that held its arm grasping at nothing.

Eyes widening in shock, Cooler's expression changed to that of surprise and confusion when he felt a massive hand grasp his head whole, another grasping his shoulder from behind.

As they watched the act of Hirudegarn disappearing and reappearing behind Cooler, all those present, sans T.P., who closed his eyes, watched Hirudegarn's back as he did something to Cooler that sounded like the horrific sound of metal being forcibly ripped apart by hand.

Hirudegarn then threw something above its head, its still open tail reaching up to suck it up, but it didn't do it quickly enough to spare those watching the knowledge of what it was.

Cooler's brutally severed head fell into the hole of Hirudegarn's tail.

Everyone's eyes collectively widened in horror as Hirudegarn continued forcibly ripping Cooler's body apart, sucking up his many body parts.

For a moment, Orora stepped forward when she saw no one doing anything about it, and as she stepped by him, T.P. opened his eyes, speaking in a voice devoid of emotion, "Don't."

"What?" Orora looked behind herself, eyes widening.

"This is how the timeline goes originally. There's nothing more we can do."

"But we can't just let that thing..." Orora's voice was drowned out by the sound of Hirudegarn's roar, and she whipped around, eyes widening as it tore through the Big Gete Star, sucking up whatever it could.

Cooler was nowhere to be seen.

At the realization of what happened, Orora seemed to lose the ability to breathe, eyes widening in horror.

T.P. walked to her side, his voice solemn, "We don't have to stay here anymore. We can go back."

As he looked at Hirudegarn, he heard the sound of a flute playing a relaxing tune, Tapion flying slowly towards the monster, his look seeming more solemn than T.P.'s.

Hirudegarn's roars came to an abrupt stop at the sound of the tune, it stopping its movements.

As Tapion reached the land mass Hirudegarn stood on, he descended to the ground, eyes narrowed, walking slowly in his direction, his tune unceasing as he neared its massive form, Hirudegarn looking down at him but never moving to attack him, only slowly fading into mist, and then into thin air.

The tune of Tapion's instrument would end soon after, and he would turn away, floating up and flying towards the people watching these things transpire.

As he landed in front of them, Tapion looked between the four of them, "Thank you for all of your help. I'm not sure where you came from, but I'm not sure I would've been able to fend those doppelgangers off by myself."

He would've, T.P. thought to himself.

In the original timeline, Tapion would've arrived in time to save Dende, and would've defeated Cooler's Cyclopian Guards single-handedly, the same going for the multitude of Meta-Coolers that attacked them earlier.

In truth, the only reason Tapion was even wounded to begin with would most likely have to do with Cooler absorbing #17 and #18 into himself. Due to the androids having unlimited energy, that made Cooler all the more powerful.

Unlike the true original timeline, the one Trunks hailed from, however, Dende hadn't used binary fission to split himself into two in order to help Gohan when Tapion was about to fight Cooler and the Meta-Coolers within the Big Gete Star.

T.P. decided it'd be best not to try fixing this a long period of time ago.

"It's no problem." T.P. said, his allies' eyes turning to him, "Hopefully, you won't be needing our help any time soon."

"Neither do I." Tapion's hand found his hip. "But what do you plan on doing with those two?"

He looked between the androids as he said this.

"Keep them safe. Maybe if you explain to them what's going on with Hirudegarn, they'll ally themselves with you."

"You know about Hirudegarn?" Tapion asked.

"Yes. Could you tell them for us?"

He looked down at the androids once more, but with reluctance, he nodded.

"Thank you." T.P. said, turning around, "We'll be taking our leave now."

Hearing this, the girls who accompanied him shared a look, before Coahla pushed #17 off of her and to his side, standing up as the Time Patrol member with the Scroll walked into a circle around T.P., them holding it out for the others to grab.

"Imagine you're in the Time Nest on the count of three." He said, and when he counted to the aforementioned number, they all disappeared in a ball of light and pieces of clockwork.

Tapion watched this, then looked down at the unconscious androids, sighing to himself.

What was he to do with these two exactly?

* * *

"Good job you guys. Sorry if it was a little long-winded for your first mission." Trunks said to the Time Patrol members as they stood before him.

Coahla, Terra and Orora looked between each other, and gave a collective shrug.

"At least we were spending our time helping people." Terra said in a monotone.

"It could've gone worse I guess." Orora said, looking down in thought, "Though now I want to know what that thing with a skull kind of face was."

"That was Hirudegarn." Trunks said, a hand finding his hip. "He's a thousand year old monster who was sealed away because of his destructive nature. The only things people were able to fight against him effectively with were a pair of flutes and swords before they eventually sealed him."

"What makes those things so special?" Coahla asked.

Trunks crossed his arms, "I'm not sure exactly what makes the flutes so powerful, but I do know that the swords aren't normal. Their strength draws itself from the bravery of the person wielding them."

"Really?" Orora asked, her eyes reflecting skepticism.

"Yes. In essence, you could say the swords are Hirudegarn's antithesis. He draws power from the fear anything has around him, and the swords draw power from the lack of fear of anything who wields it."

"What exactly is this power?" Terra asked, now curious.

"They're swords, so it obviously can only cut and stab. But what makes them powerful is the fact that if anyone who wields it is themself without fear were to cut through someone who did feel fear, the sword would cut right through them, regardless of how powerful they are."

"Well that's a little unfair." Orora commented.

"That depends on who's wielding the sword." Trunks shrugged. "I once had the chance to wield it, and I could tell the results were correspondent to my emotional states at the time."

The memory of how quickly he killed Frieza and his father, King Cold, flicked through his mind, with him feeling no fear due to how much weaker they were to him, with him cutting Frieza into countless pieces shortly afterward.

Then came the memory of when Trunks used the sword in an attempt to attack #18. He could vividly remember how greatly he felt fear from the androids being activated, and the sword reflected as much when it broke against the wrist #18 used to block it.

It seemed the sword would never work if someone who was fearful attacked someone without fear with the sword, Trunks thought sadly, remembering the sword's broken state as it sat back in his old room at the Capsule Corporation.

"Really? What happened to it?" Coahla asked, eyes studying the man before her.

The sadness decided to show on his body language then.

"When I used it against a guy who'd killed countless people but was afraid of me, the sword worked. When I tried to kill someone I was afraid of but they weren't afraid of me, it broke."

His sad voice coupled with his posture seemed to be enough to convince them.

"I see." Coahla crossed her arms, "That makes sense I suppose."

"Yeah." Trunks turned around, "I know you'd probably like to know more, but that's all the information I can give you right now."

Coahla smiled, "Hey, it's something. At least now I know more about that sword my family's been keeping for so long."

Trunks found himself smiling at that, "Yeah. Sorry your great grandfather can't give you more details though. I imagine I'm not around that much when you're born."

T.P. blinked at these words, looking between Coahla and Trunks.

"Wait, you're his...?" He trailed off as he tried asking the question to Coahla.

She looked over at him, "Yes, I'm his great grand-daughter, biologically speaking, if that's what you're asking. Though I doubt I'd ever would've believed that whole story about him time traveling until a couple days ago."

She looked at Trunks as she said the latter part of her words, and he scratched his head without looking back at her.

"At least now I'll have something to tell my grandchildren, that's assuming I have children to begin with." Coahla shrugged to herself, turning away. "I'm glad I could help you great grampa. It probably helps that I'd probably cease to exist if no one helped you, but still."

"Thanks for the honesty Coahla. I'll be getting you and your friends your paychecks in a few hours."

"Alright!" Coahla called behind herself, walking away, Terra and Orora looking at Trunks before following their friend.

After a few moments of silence, T.P. walked to Trunks' side, "Well, putting that aside."

"What?" Trunks turned to look at T.P., surprised at how serious he looked.

T.P. only responded by hugging Trunks, smiling in relief, "I'm glad you're safe."

The hug was awkward, he knew it, but he did it anyways.

To his surprise, Trunks responded in kind, embracing T.P. like a brother, a smile in his voice, "I'm glad everything worked out. Thank you."

* * *

Anyone would be able to find Trunks laying in his bed hours later, him absent-mindedly staring at the ceiling.

His nightly drill for becoming a Super Saiyan God hadn't started yet, for he felt too tired at that time to do that to himself that himself that night.

Sighing softly, Trunks closed his eyes after a long time of reflecting on his day, telling himself not to dwell on them.

He already made his mind up for what he'd do about the situation with Towa hours beforehand.

Though he was sure there were other solutions, he decided that simply killing her and Mira would stop these things from happening.

He was already having a hard enough time keeping the natural changes to history from being existent, and Towa's way of meddling with time caused far more stress than was necessary for him.

He found himself giving a heavy sigh, only for him to open his eyes at the sound of his bedroom door opening.

He sat up with a start, wondering who could be coming into his room, only for him to relax when he saw the Supreme Kai of Time there in his doorway.

"Hey Trunks." She said awkwardly.

"Hello Supreme Kai of Time. Is there something wrong?"

"No, not really." She replied, rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh." Trunks' taken aback expression turned into a smile, "That's fine. Would you mind doing me a favor though?"

"What?"

"Would it be okay if you knocked before you came in?"

"Why? You aren't keeping anything secret from me, are you?" The Supreme Kai of Time held her hip with a look of suspicion on her face then.

"No." Trunks' smile became playful. "Besides, what's the point of trying to keep secrets from a goddess of all people?"

She smirked pridefully at his words, "You make a fair point. But still."

"Could you though? You never know if I'm just standing in front of the door when you open it."

"Fine, I'll do that." She said this in a voice that lacked reluctance, her smiling playfully now as well. "But if I were to open the door in your face, I doubt it'd hurt you at all."

"It'd be surprising is all." Trunks responded with a smile, it soon dropping to mold his face into an expression of curiosity. "But if there's nothing wrong, why did you come here?"

"Well..." The Supreme Kai of Time looked away, "I wanted to talk to you."

Trunks blinked, "Oh. Okay. Come on in then."

"Thank you." She closed the door behind herself, walking to the swiveling chair Trunks had and sitting herself on it, looking over at him as he kicked his legs off the side of the bed.

"What was it you wanted to talk about?" Trunks asked, his curiosity strong still.

"Well... It's about your sin. For time traveling." The Supreme Kai of Time elaborated.

"What about it?" Trunks asked, the air of the room gradually becoming more uncomfortable as he watched her for an answer.

It was hard to read her expression in the darkness of the bedroom, with the sole light being the faint one provided by the dining room.

"I wanted to talk about your punishment." The Supreme Kai of Time seemed to be looking down as she said this. "Toki-Toki told me about what happened today, with Towa and Mira attacking your mother and friends."

Trunks looked down at that as well, his expression solemn as he closed his eyes, them stinging somewhat at the memory of his mother's death.

"Yes. It's been fixed though."

"I've been thinking..." Her voice implied that was searching for the right words to say, "And I realize that it just isn't fair for you to have to endure that without being able to talk to them."

Trunks looked up at her in curiosity, her seeming to be more uncomfortable than he'd ever seen her.

"So, because of that, I was wondering if... maybe you'd like to visit your friends and family from your timeline."

The words hung in the air, with the Supreme Kai of Time looking up at Trunks for his answer.

He stared at her in earth-shattering shock.

"What?" He said dumbly.

Had he heard her right?

She sighed, looking away awkwardly.

"I just know how stressful it is to try and keep time stabilized all the time, and adding onto that, you can't talk to your family. So I'm asking if you'd like to see your friends and family again. Because I'm willing to let you if you want."

For a moment, there was silence, her words sinking into Trunks' brain.

Then he stood up suddenly, and she watched in surprise as he walked in front of her, staring down at her.

For a moment more, there was a tense silence.

Then Trunks bowed down in front of her quickly, lowering his head as he stood on his hands and knees.

"_Thank you Supreme Kai of Time. Thank you for giving me such a kind offer._" He said, happiness seeming to flow from his voice.

"Hey, it's nothing." She looked away awkwardly, "Besides, I thought you would've realized it by now. Being kind is the easy part of being a god. The hard part of it is being fair."

"Yes. I know that very well." Trunks looked up at her, smiling happily, "And yes, I would very much like to visit them."

She smiled back at him, "Okay. You can spend the day with them whenever you'd like."

"Could I go now then?" Trunks asked excitedly.

She seemed taken aback by his enthusiasm, but nodded all the same, "Yes, you can."

He stood up onto his feet at these words, "Okay. I can't thank you enough for this."

So happy in this moment, Trunks seemed to almost disappear from the room with how fast he was moving, running out of the house the goddess and her assistant resided in and running towards the Time Vault, smiling happily as he went.

* * *

The day would begin as normally as could be for Pan.

The walk to school wasn't out of the ordinary, which was somewhat tragic once she considered the android who kept attacking her on a daily basis.

Once she arrived safely at school, she would go on to her classroom, with many people making way for her as she went, her trying not to pay them any attention.

Once she reached her classroom, the first person she'd see would be the teacher, and she would smile at her and give a normal greeting, to which the teacher responded normally with a cheerful greeting of her own.

The next thing that she would notice would be the person sitting at a desk near the very front, and her eyes would widen at the sight of him.

"Hey Pan. How are you?" Trunks greeted her with a warm smile, her too dumbfounded for a moment to respond, his smile turning into a smirk at her surprise.

* * *

**A/N: And finally done with this thing. School can be such a pain sometimes. DX  
**

**And now for the thing I'm sure no one will care about (again)!**

* * *

**Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 Wishlist  
#2  
Binary Fission**

If I could design Xenoverse 2, I'd want this ability as a type of transformation for Namekian CaCs.

The effects would be temporary, but I think, if handled well, it could make Namekians more dangerous.

The effects I'm imagining would involve the player activating the transformation and choosing between the "warrior" and "helper" Namekians for the player to control, with A.I. controlling the Namekian the player doesn't choose.

If the player chooses the warrior, then they'll have heightened attack power and stamina, as well as the ability to transform into a "giant" Namekian.

If the player chooses the helper, then they'll be given the ability to heal anyone of their choosing within the time limit (sans enemies naturally) while being able to fly faster and have stronger ki-based attacks.

Due to it being Binary Fission however, the health of the Namekian using it would be halved between the two Namekians, and should one of the Namekians die, the other will naturally follow suit, like Kami and Piccolo (but not Guru and Slug for some reason).


End file.
